Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Drunk Florida Woman Plows Down Two People on Sidewalk

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Shannon King, 22, was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison for driving drunk in January 2024 and hitting two women. St. Johns County Sheriff's body cameras recorded witness interviews, deputies conducting field sobriety tests with King along with her talking to deputies. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the footage from that night in this episode of Crime Fix - a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/CrimeFixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And it's late and my mom is probably scared. I'm scared. That's Shannon King after she hit two women while driving drunk. I saw that girl's body slide. That's when I got out of my car. Now King has learned her punishment for the crime. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Drunk driving crashes are some of the worst things to cover because they are so easily preventable. All you have to do when you're

out drinking is call a cab or a rideshare driver or get a friend to be the designated driver. But on January 7th of 2024, that didn't happen in St. John's County, Florida. Deputies got a call that two women had been hit. Body cameras captured the aftermath. Holy s***. Who was dropped? Female. School reaming.

Where'd she hit her? Shereaming. Where'd she hit her? She ran over these two girls. Come in straight southbound, ran over the two girls all the way through. We'll get to the girl who ran over the women in just a moment. She's Shannon King. This was certainly a chaotic and terrifying scene. You can hear screaming in some of the body camera footage. Several people saw and heard what happened,

and they were very eager to describe it for detectives. I saw a car over there, probably a drunk driver hit that girl in the pink shirt. I only saw her body fly. I did not see the second girl get hit. You only saw one. And then I just remember him just, like, driving straight. Okay. And then he crashed. All right. Oh, my God.

That could have been our friends. I know. Let me figure out. Y'all just three. Y'all stay right here. Okay. Do not go anywhere. Yes, sir.

Hey, y'all, if y'all will, y'all walk over here for me. I just don't want you near that cell phone. I appreciate it. Yeah. But if y'all won't go anywhere just yet. Yeah. Okay, we appreciate it. Yeah, I'm just shaking.

Which one? The one with the thumbs. That's the one I grabbed right when it happened. See, that's her, like her girlfriend or something like that. She was freaking the out. Make sure she don't get away, someone needs to be on her. Were they walking through the parking lot? Yeah, they were coming up through there.

I mean that car was flying around and just blasted right through there. So she's with that one. Okay. So if somebody means to be like, make sure she don't leave because she was free. Now, one of the deputies even spoke with the mother of one of the victims by phone as medics were treating her. Are you the mother to one of these females out here? Okay.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, so pretty much she was struck by a vehicle. Right now, fire rescue is tending to her. I don't know what the outcome is just yet. We got a lot of people here. We're trying to figure it all out. That call is probably every parent's worst nightmare, hearing that your child is injured and you don't know how they're doing. Deputies go on to interview everyone who either heard that crash or saw it.

Did you? I see you got blood on you. Are you okay? Did you get hit? No, I pushed one of my friends out of the way. or saw it. We were just walking from there. I was literally coming from that way. I was coming this way and I saw the car jump, hit them, jump that curb and then land over there. Yes. I about to not come back to my car? While some of the witnesses only partially saw or heard what happened, there were some that saw the entire thing. We were basically talking amongst ourselves getting an Uber back to our hotel. We heard screeching of tires and looked over. This car looked like it had jumped one of these curbs over here. They were right on this corner.

And the car just came from down the street and veered left straight into that corner right there and jumped it. They were crossing right here and we saw two bodies go over the car and that's when we jumped the fence to get over to it. Other witnesses estimated how fast they believed the driver, Shannon King, was going. Now, some of these accounts sound very similar, but that doesn't really matter. Law enforcement has to get every witness statement that they can, at the minimum. This is a crash with serious bodily injuries, but it could become worse than that. It could become a vehicular homicide case. Thank goodness it didn't.

What did you see? Yes. So we were walking out of the edge of that fence right there to a car across over here. So it's to about that palm tree, the farthest palm tree. And the car came swinging in from the outside of here to the parking lot. So it came from the south going this way towards north? I didn't see if it came from the south or from this way. All I know is that it came really fast.

I would say at least 50 miles per hour. Okay. And we ran over both, like hit both of them. They flew and rolled over the windshield and almost hit both me and Paige over there. And then they kept going at that speed about until like around here. Okay. Yeah. And then I checked both of their pulses as soon until like around here. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And then I checked both of their pulses as soon as they were hit.

Right. They both had pulses. They both were breathing. Okay. But I saw Riley, the one over here, did have blood coming from her head. Okay. Okay. And that's when the police were on the scene and I let them handle everything.

But luckily they were here at the... Okay. Perfect. All right. You're good. Thank you. Thank you. The cases I cover for you show you just how unpredictable the world can be. And that's why having a great lawyer really matters. Morgan & Morgan is a firm with more than a thousand lawyers at the ready.

And let me tell you, they win a lot. In the past few months, Morgan & Morgan has won some big verdicts, like a $29 million verdict for a cyclist in Philly, a $2.7 million verdict for a car accident victim in Florida, not to mention a $5.6 million verdict for a car crash victim in Georgia after the insurance company offered the client nothing. Even if you think your case isn't worth millions, why not start a claim and fight for what you deserve? Morgan & Morgan makes it so easy. You can start a claim from your phone in just eight clicks. So if you're ever hurt, you can easily start a claim at forthepeople.com slash crime fix, or click the link in the description and pinned in the comments.

A friend of the young women who were hit then gave her account of the crash to the deputy. And they came to arrest over there where it's at. Yeah. Okay. All right. Cool. I appreciate it. And then there was this woman.

She had seen the two victims earlier that night. She described what she saw. So we were just sitting in the car talking. We saw these girls at one of the bars. I was like, oh, that's the girl from the bar. She's carrying a plant. And then like a minute later, we're just talking about everything. And then we hear a loud noise. And I look behind me and I just see the body like fly across. Like it literally

the pink girl, the girl in the pink shirt right there. She just flew across the whole parking lot basically. And then the car just crashed all the way over there. That's all we saw. Okay. So you saw the car hit the body or just the body fly i i heard the body in the car impact and then i just saw her flying i didn't see another body i know there's another girl that got hit as well she's all the way over there but we it was the one that cracked the silver one the one that crashed all the way over there okay yeah and you saw that silver car hit the body or hit the person? I didn't see it. I heard the impact.

I heard it and I looked behind me and I just saw her flying. Okay. Then deputies start to discuss the driver, who's certainly been detained. They're not letting her go anywhere, and you'll see why momentarily. Yo, yo. Yo, yo. So, female that deputy point out the driver, Shannon King. He said she appeared unfazed by what had happened. The deputies know this is a serious incident and they start getting a game plan together. Okay. So I told, um, I told Chris because of the severity of it, if it turns THI, you and I'll help him out. And we can do mapping if need be. He wants us to do the DUI.

Okay. So this is what I think. So here is my thought process on all this. She looks like she's going to have a cell. Yeah. We're going to start needing to warrant blood draw. She's fine to do fields. She's doing fields. She's going to do fields tonight.

You're supposed to be muted. No one over there needs fire rescue, right? Nope. They might need overall checkout. So we can do this. We can start fields on her. Deputies conducted a field sobriety test on Shannon King. It started with them checking her horizontal gaze to check for any involuntary jerking of the eyeballs. Then they moved to a parking space. They want to determine whether King could walk in a straight line. The test did not go well for her. Deputies described her as being unsteady and swaying, and they conducted breathalyzer tests. Okay, Shannon. Okay, so here's the deal, okay? Do you know what the legal limit is in the state of Florida? 0.08. Okay, so legal limit is 0.08, okay? Your first breath sample, you blew a 0.160.

Your second breath sample, you blew a 0.162. Nearly double the legal limit. Double the legal limit, okay? Okay. You have any questions for me? I'm sure you have... Well, so you're still being... Can it be used against me? You're still being arrested for DUI regardless, okay? Okay. I just turned 21, not even 30 minutes ago, so I know nothing about what's going on right now. So I will tell you. I'm just in pain, and these handcuffs hurt, and I gotta pee, and it's late, and my mom is probably scared. I'm scared. I'm sure Shannon King was scared, and she should have been scared.

She was drunk, and she hit two women with her car. She plowed into them. The witnesses said one of the women went flying into the air. These two women could have been killed. Both suffered serious injuries. Under the circumstances, the deputy who took her into custody really showed a lot of grace. So I will tell you. Okay.

Well, if need be to your young girl, I'll make your mom feel better. I'll give her a call from my phone here in a couple minutes. Okay. I'm going her a call from my phone here in a couple minutes. Okay. I'm going to explain something to you. The two pedestrians, okay, we're not sure of their condition right now, but it is serious. Okay. And you asked me their condition. Okay.

I'm not going to lie to you, and I'm not going to hide stuff from you. Okay. I'm sure you're concerned. So that's why I'm telling you their condition is serious. Okay, at this point I don't know their current condition other than serious. Okay. And very critical. Okay.

Okay? Alright, I didn't want to keep that from you. That's why I wanted to tell you. Okay? And you don't know about my friend? So your friend I last saw in the back of a police car, I don't know if they took him home or what. Your other friend obviously left. I know he did, but the other one acts a fool, so. I don't know. I can find out for you, though. Okay. Do you have anything on you? I'm going to put your phone back here. I'm going to take it with us to the jail.

I will be. I know. Okay, so what we're going to do is because you were involved in a crash, I am going to have to take you to Flagler Hospital for medical clearance, okay? Even if you're not injured, I still have to take you there, okay? I just have to use the bathroom. That's fine, and I'll get you there. Can you hold it for about 15 minutes? I'll try. Okay.

All right, this is a national landmark. I can't take you up and let a female take you up there and let you go up there, okay? No, I don't have a... I'm not allowed to have my vape, I take it. No, definitely not right now. Okay. Yeah, you're good. Do we have a female coming?

Am I riding with you or someone else? You're going to ride with me. The deputy is probably used to dealing with people who are intoxicated. And as you heard and could probably tell from watching her, Shannon King was highly intoxicated. The incident report states, while speaking with the defendant away from her vehicle, I could smell a strong and distinct odor of alcoholic beverages emitting from the defendant's breath, and she spoke with slurred speech. Her eyes were bloodshot and watery, and she displayed a noticeable sway from front to back. Upon standing up from the sidewalk, the defendant staggered

towards her left. Another part of the report documented King's breath alcohol content. It states BRAC 0.160 and 0.162. The legal limit, as you heard, was 0.08. So Shannon King was driving at more than twice the legal limit. Remember, the deputies had already conducted the field sobriety tests and determined that Shannon King was unsteady on her feet and they smelled alcohol on her breath. Deputies placed Shannon King into the back of the cruiser. She sat there for a while. King looked very nervous, sitting in the back of the cruiser in handcuffs

before arriving at the jail. The deputies would take her to the hospital to be evaluated to ensure that she wasn't injured. She wasn't. But Addie's not clear how the women are recovering, but we do know what's happening to Shannon King. A judge sentenced Shannon King to four years and 10 months in prison. She pleaded no contest to a number of felony charges, including reckless driving and DUI causing serious bodily injury. A friend of King's was put in handcuffs that night, accused of refusing to obey deputies' commands. I have worked with you, and worked with you, and tried to comfort and try to console you guys as best as I can, and then you don't listen. And then, sir? That is why you are in the position that you are. Because you cannot shut your mouth and just sit in the moment.

There is a big investigation going on. We are trying to figure this out, and you are running your mouth. Shut up. Stop talking. I'm in cops. What else do you have to say while I'm in cuffs! What else... Just trying to get a name and all this. Stop talking! What else do you have to say while I'm in cuffs?

You wanna go to jail? Yeah. What else do you have to say while I'm in cuffs? That was the question. You're in cuffs because of what you did. Where's your body cam? Oh! Get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up! Hey, hey, hey! Sir! Sir! Can I stand up?

You have your opportunity! You did listen! I hope that brought a sense of humor. It is. Say hi. Say hi. Right there. This is how you get treatment. The ones incident isn't known. Listen to what he said. Shut up. Listen to what he said. You hold it. I'll kick his leg out. I got it. I have nothing on me, sir. The outcome of that incident isn't known, whether the friend was simply detained or later let go. But again, Shannon King is going to serve four years and 10 months in prison. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix.

I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being here. I'll see you back here next time.