A woman has been sentenced to prison after crashing a stolen construction truck in a roundabout in The Villages.
Ashley Nicole Kirkland, 24, of Belleview, has been sentenced to 18 months with the Florida Department of Corrections after pleading no contest earlier this month in Sumter County Court to charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle, possession of methamphetamine and fleeing from law enforcement. She will also lose her driver’s license for six months and has been ordered to make restitution in the amount of $1,000 to the truck’s owner for compensation of a $1,000 insurance deductible.
She was driving the blue Chevrolet Colorado pickup on the afternoon of Sept. 21 when the vehicle crashed in the roundabout at Buena Vista Boulevard and Hillsborough Trail. Sumter County sheriff’s deputies had been pursuing the stolen CGB Construction Group truck at speeds of up to 100 mph. At one point, Kirkland accelerated the truck and struck a detective’s vehicle hard enough to knock off its front bumper.
Kirkland lost control of the vehicle as she approached the roundabout, it jumped the curb and hit the Village of Hillsborough sign. At gunpoint, Kirkland was ordered to crawl out of the passenger side of the car. She told the deputies, “There’s guns in the car.”
Deputies found a Glock 10mm handgun tucked in a woman’s purse. The gun had a full magazine and a round in the chamber. A Ruger 6.5 grendel rifle and .357 Maverick handgun were also in the vehicle at the time of the crash. The truck was stolen from a residence under construction in Belleview and the guns were in the vehicle at the time of the theft.
Methamphetamine, marijuana and syringes were also found in the vehicle.
She was already on felony probation in Marion County.
