A Lake Sumter Apartments resident has been sentenced to jail time after a crash he tried to blame on texting.
Patrick James Smith, 38, who lives in the apartment complex at County Road 466 and Cherry Lake Road, was sentenced to 10 days in jail after pleading no contest this past week to a charge of driving under the influence in Sumter County Court. He will also lose his driver’s license for five years and has been placed on probation for one year. The severity of the sentence was due in part to the fact he had been convicted of drunk driving in 2013.
Smith was driving a white Ford pickup at about 6 p.m. Dec. 7 when he rear-ended a sport utility vehicle on County Road 466 at County Road 239, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. A caller who witnessed the crash dialed 911.
Smith initially claimed he was texting his girlfriend when he rear-ended the SUV in a crash that was powerful enough to cause the deployment of the airbag in his truck.
It appeared Smith had been drinking and he acknowledged he’d had “too much” to drink, according to the arrest report. He struggled through field sobriety exercises and provided breath samples that registered .166 and .152 blood alcohol content.
