A 91-year-old Villager who hit two bicyclists in 2020 with her Mercedes has reported to state prison despite last-minute legal maneuvering.
Marilyn Hamilton was turned over Wednesday to the Florida Department of Corrections. She had been held since Dec. 20 at the Sumter County Detention Center after she was sentenced to five years in prison. On the day of sentencing, she was immediately taken from the courtroom to jail.
Hamilton’s attorney on Tuesday filed a motion for “a limited furlough” that would provide for the release of his client. The court has not taken any action on that motion.
Hamilton initially will be housed at the DOC’s Women’s Reception Center in Ocala. Jessica Leigh Lewis, 36, formerly of the Historic Side of The Villages, is also currently residing at the Women’s Reception Center. She arrived there on Dec. 20 after she was sentenced to eight years in state prison on a charge of aggravated child abuse in connection with a 2018 incident which occurred on the Historic Side of The Villages. Lewis also stole $100,000 from her grandmother, with whom she had been living in The Villages.
While delivering Hamilton’s sentence this past month in Sumter County Court, Judge Don Briggs emphasized that her biggest legal problem wasn’t the crash itself, but the fact she left the scene.
Hamilton was behind the wheel of a white Mercedes on Oct. 30, 2020, when she struck Village of Dunedin residents Jessica Laube and Robert Hunter while they were pedaling on Morse Boulevard near Bonita Boulevard.
Witnesses told the Florida Highway Patrol that Hamilton got out of her vehicle, saw the husband and wife crumpled in the road, got back into her car and drove away. The vehicle was later recovered at the Mercedes dealership in Gainesville, where it was being repaired.
“The impact of what you did is felt by (the victims), but what happened afterward is what impacts you,” Judge Briggs said at the sentencing. “If you had stayed, things would have been much different for you. No sentence I could impose would restore Mr. Hunter and Ms. Laube to their prior condition. This is punitive.”
