PANAMA CITY — A man intoxicated on prescription narcotics was sentenced to five years in prison for running down a pedestrian along a dimly lit Panama City Beach road.
William Scott Rhodes, 29, was sentenced Thursday after he pleaded no contest to DUI manslaughter charges stemming from a January 2013 incident. Witnesses said traffic was heavy along Joan Avenue, just south of Houston Street, where 37-year-old James Gladney was struck and killed that night by a 1994 Dodge pickup truck.
The stretch of road was dark, but the memories were still traumatically clear during witness depositions more than a year later as Rhodes’ November trial approached.
Gladney had just left a friend’s home across Joan Avenue at about 7:30 p.m., waving goodbye to a couple of family members who had walked him to the driveway’s edge.
Other drivers noticed something indistinct cross the road, a silhouette — lines cutting through headlights approaching in the other lane. Some people dodged Gladney, watching to see if the other drivers would do the same.
“I thought for sure he was going to see him,” one driver said as she passed Gladney. “Then I just saw this body flying through the air.”
Rhodestold investigators he did not see Gladney in time to avoid hitting him. During his sworn statement he had a “thick tongue” and “his speech was still mumbled and he had difficulty staying awake,” according to his arrest affidavit.
Gladney was pronounced dead at the scene when troopers arrested Rhodes on Jan. 20.
Rhodesdidn’t smell like alcohol during the crash investigation, though he was unsteady and “his speech was mumbled and confused,” the Florida Highway Patrol reported. One trooper investigating the crash said Rhodes “could not stay awake” while he was interviewed.
Two witnesses told troopers that before the collision, Rhodes’ truck was weaving as it traveled north on Joan Avenue. They said they suspected the driver was impaired and they backed off the truck because they feared it would crash.
Before he was arrested, a trooper put Rhodes in the back of a patrol car. Another trooper who interviewed Rhodes later said Rhodes appeared to be sleeping in the back of the car before he was arrested.
Investigators asked Rhodes to perform field sobriety tests, which he did. The arrest report indicated he performed poorly and was arrested on suspicion of DUI, but after his arrest, Rhodes was taken to the FHP station, where he submitted to a Breathalyzer test and registered a 0.0 blood-alcohol content.
What Rhodes was influenced by was unclear at the time.
Rhodes had refused consent for a blood draw prior to his arrest because he had smoked marijuana at a party a few nights prior and was worried toxicology results might show older drugs in his system, according to the arrest report. However, because it as a homicide, he was required to submit to a blood test.
Toxicology reports said Rhodes was had traces of alprazolam, oxycodone and THC in his blood. Rhodes was sentenced to several other drug and alcohol screenings, substance abuse counseling, as well as five years in prison. He also was ordered to write a letter of apology to Gladney’s mother during his incarceration.