PANAMA CITY — Jurors found a Panama City woman guilty of DUI manslaughter Tuesday, though she claimed to have been drugged by a stranger before driving.
Lee Creary, 51, was found guilty as charged in connection with the May 22, 2014 death of 17-year-old Mark Garrard Robertson. Robertson, of Louisiana, was run down at midnight by a 1991 Chevrolet Suburban and killed while walking on a sidewalk along South Thomas Drive. Creary’s defense in the trial was that she was “involuntarily intoxicated” at the time of the crash. However, the claim was not allowed by the judge as a defense.
Jurors spent less than 40 minutes deliberating before reaching a verdict of guilty as charged.
Creary said as she drove from a bar and, after not consuming any alcohol, a strange feeling suddenly rushed over her.
“I heard static then it just panned down to black, and it was silent …,” Creary told jurors. “Then I saw a bright light, then darkness.”
In the five hours that ensued, during which she fought with emergency crews and police, Creary said she did not remember anything.
Defense attorney Walter Smith claimed Creary had been drugged with “pow-cohol,” a dehydrated form of grain alcohol, to explain Creary’s memory loss and violent behavior.
“She was involuntarily intoxicated to the point that she was legally insane,” Smith said.
An official toxicology report indicated Creary’s blood alcohol content was .189 percent, more than double the legal limit of .08 percent, about three hours after the crash. Blood samples taken about an hour afterward indicated she had a blood alcohol content of .258 percent.
However, Circuit Judge James Fensom ruled “involuntary intoxication” was not a defense in the case.
Prosecutor Bob Sombathy instead presented jurors with a different cause for Creary’s lack of memory.
“There was no evidence somebody spiked her drink with some mystery powder,” Sombathy said. “There was another substance.”
During the course of the trial, several EMS and police testified to smelling alcohol on Creary following the wreck. One blood test was returned with positive results indicating she had also used methamphetamine within 24 hours of the wreck.
The night he was killed, Robertson was returning to his room at the Boardwalk Beach Resort, 9450 South Thomas Drive, at about midnight. The honors student graduated from high school days earlier and had traveled to Florida on a senior trip. He was drinking a milkshake when an SUV traveling east toward the intersection at Alvin’s Island Department Store drove up on the sidewalk and struck him.
The Suburban continued driving until it collided with a palm tree.
Creary was leaving Pineapple Willy’s, 9875 S. Thomas Drive, after seeing a local band when she struck a curb, road sign and light post before running over Robertson and dragging him beneath the Suburban without stopping. He only became dislodged from the SUV’s undercarriage when Creary struck another curb before crashing into the palm tree.
“She never stopped, she never hit the breaks,” Sombathy said.
Eyewitnesses told jurors the SUV seemed to be going about 50 mph in a 35 mph zone.
Creary sustained a broken arm and a head wound in the crash. When she arrived at the hospital, she was cursing, spitting and swinging punches at medical staff — many of whom testified against her.
Robertson’s family members declined to comment following the verdict. However, Sombathy said, “all they want is justice.”
Robertson “was a bright kid, he’d just graduated high school and had plans to go to LSU,” Sombathy said. “Instead, his family had to come from Louisiana to identify his body.”
Creary’s sentencing was scheduled for May 11. She faces up to 15 years in prison.