In a Florida courtroom, a judge strongly condemned a repeat drunk driver who caused a tragic accident resulting in the death of her cousin – marking her second deadly DUI offense in just seven years.
Jennifer Carvajal, aged 28, has been handed a 67-year prison sentence for her role in a crash that claimed the life of her cousin and left two others with severe injuries in 2021.
During the sentencing, the woman from Plant City, Florida, could not hold back her tears and anguish as the judge issued a harsh judgment that will see her incarcerated until her late 70s, according to reports from the Tampa Bay Times.
The crash killed Pedro Carbajal and seriously injured two other people near Interstate 4.
Judge G. Gregory Green said he struggled to comprehend how she could commit the same deadly crime twice in her lifetime.
‘It is almost as if instead of taking every step to avoid putting yourself in that situation again, you took steps to ensure that it happened,’ the Hillsborough Circuit judge told the repeat offender.
‘And that is incomprehensible for this court,’ he added.
The first time Carvajal drove drunk and killed someone in 2014, she received just five years in prison.
The second time, she got two-thirds of a century behind bars.
Carvajal reportedly wept in court throughout the four-hour sentencing hearing -repeatedly apologizing to her dead cousin’s devastated family.
‘No matter how many sorrys I say to each of you, or even him, I could never forgive myself,’ Carvajal said, as reported by the outlet.
The court heard how Carvajal had a traumatic childhood, including sexual abuse by male relatives that only came to light when she was diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease at age nine.
She never received proper mental health treatment for what was later identified as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
This led her to contemplate suicide and self-harm with broken glass.
By age 11, she was already drinking beer and smoking weed at school as she desperately tried to cope with her psychological pain through alcohol abuse, her attorney told the court.
Her own father was arrested when she was 11 for raping an older female relative and spent five years in prison before he was deported to Mexico, the Tampa Bay Times revealed.
She was hospitalized for two suicide attempts, according to court records obtained by the outlet.
‘Jennifer committed these acts because she’s broken,’ said Assistant Public Defender Nicole Engebretsen. ‘She was a broken child that never healed.’
But prosecutors didn’t show mercy for the repeat killer.
‘Two people have lost their lives at the hands of Jennifer Carvajal,’ Assistant State Attorney Dawn Hart told the cour5t.
‘This community is not safe if Miss Carvajal is ever allowed back in society.’
Carvajal was arrested on April 25, 2021, after an 111 mph police chase that led to a deadly crash.
When the trooper tried to pull her over, Carvajal made a hard right turn that sent the Hyundai Elantra down an embankment before going airborne and hitting a concrete light pole and a palm tree. It then overturned in the parking lot of a car dealership.
Carvajal’s cousin Pedro Carbajal, 22, was killed when he was ejected from the back seat of the car.
Pedro’s girlfriend Lexcia Gonzalez, 20, was also ejected from the back seat and broke both of her legs.
A front seat passenger, 19-year-old Grady Ramirez, had ‘incapacitating’ injuries.
When asked by the trooper who was driving the car, Gonzalez pointed to Carvajal – who denied she was the driver. The car was registered to Gonzalez.
Carvajal’s first deadly crash happened around 6.30am on February 5, 2014, when she was speeding down Alexander Street at 55mph in a gold Lincoln Navigator with her headlights off. She tore through a red light and plowed into a black Toyota Echo.
The Toyota was being driven by a newspaper deliveryman, 52-year-old Keith Allen Davis, and was smashed into a concrete divider.
Carvajal, who was then 16 years old, told a bystander that she had just received her learner’s permit and didn’t have insurance, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
‘I am sorry, it was my fault,’ Carvajal said as Davis lay on the ground bleeding and unconscious.
Davis was taken a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Cops found an empty can of Four Loko, a cheap malt liquor favored by young partygoers, with an empty beer can and an empty bottle of Patron tequila, the outlet reported. Her blood content was measured at .13 – above the legal limit of .08.
Carvajal pleaded no contest to charges of DUI manslaughter in an adult court and faced sentencing after she turned 18 years old.
