Cassandra Smith guilty of DUI manslaughter and more

Reporter: Claire Galt
Published: Updated:
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cassandra smith
Cassandra Smith at her trial. CREDIT: WINK News

The jury has reached a verdict in the Cassandra Smith trial after deliberating into the early afternoon on Friday.

Smith was found guilty of DUI manslaughter, injury to a person, vehicular homicide and DUI damage to property.

Smith was convicted of hitting and killing 23-year-old Charlotte County deputy Christopher Taylor while driving drunk Friday afternoon.

Jurors were shown the video all week depicting Smith immediately after the crash. In it she appears to not know what’s going on as first responders try to perform CPR on Taylor after he was hit.

“I’m a Christian. I’m a positive thinker. I’ve been through a lot of life, and I just keep plugging away. and you know I dont give up because I’m 86 years old… and I still have a lot of life left to live,” said Rich Taylor, Christopher Taylor’s grandfather.

“This week has been something else for me because I was so close to Christopher,” said Rich.

The prosecutor showed the video of the moment they argued Smith drove drunk, crossed three lanes of traffic, and hit and killed Taylor.

Her blood alcohol level was .25, more than three times the legal limit of .08.

Smith’s defense attorney argued the State was using the tragedy to sway the jury’s emotions, and there wasn’t enough evidence Smith was impaired.

“He was my best friend… I can’t imagine it ever being anyone else. I’m so glad he was there. I am so glad I had him,” said Alyssa, Taylor’s best friend.

“No one in this courtroom thinks what happened was not a tragedy,” said the defense attorney. “You have to take that emotion and put it aside that a young man has died. That anger, that annoyance, you have to put it away because that’s how mistakes get made. There’s errors, there’s bad judgments. When you look, you’ll see there are things that just don’t add up.”

The prosecution finished by addressing the defense’s argument.

The attorney said OK, let’s take emotion out of it, there’s a blood test and video evidence that provides proof Smith killed Taylor on Nov. 22, 2022.

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