An Ocala man who said he had three shots at the Last Tab bar and got lost taking his friend home was arrested recently on a DUI charge after deputies found him stopped on the road with his vehicle’s hazard lights on.
A deputy in the Marion County Sheriff’s Office’s helicopter observed the white SUV possibly strike another vehicle in the 3000 block of SE 64th Avenue Road. The deputy in the helicopter said the vehicle slowed in then the middle of the road and then came to a dead stop, according to the sheriff’s office report.
Two other deputies responded to the 3600 block of SE 64th Avenue and observed a white 2000 Chevy utility vehicle parked on the side of the road with its hazard lights on. A deputy spoke with the driver, 57-year-old Wayne Sellers, of 1839 NE 8th Road. Sellers fumbled while trying to find license, registration and proof of insurance, and the deputy could smell alcohol on his breath, the report said.
The other deputy observed that Sellers had slurred speech, bloodshot and watery eyes, and problems maintaining his balance when he got out of his car and walked to the patrol car. Asked if he had any intoxicating beverages that night, Sellers said he had a beer, according to the report.
Sellers agreed to perform a series of field sobriety tests. He was unable walk heel to toe on almost every step he took on the walk-and-turn exercise, couldn’t keep his foot up in the one-leg stand exercise, recited the alphabet up to the letter “N” before jumbling the rest of the letters, and lost his balance and almost fell over during the finger to nose exercise, the report said.
Sellers was placed under arrest and taken to the Marion County Jail, where he provided to breath samples that came back with BAC readings of 0.178 and 0.172 per 210 liters of breath. After being read his Miranda warning and asked again how much he had to drink, Sellers said he had three shots, according to the report.
Sellers said he was at the Last Tab bar and drove from there to take his friend home. He said his friend lives near SE 36th Avenue and S. Highway 475. Sellers said he was on SE 64th Avenue because his friend was also drunk and he got lost, the report said.
Sellers will appear in Marion County Court on Feb. 17.