An Ocala woman who gained worldwide attention for flashing a grin in her arrest mugshot after a three-vehicle crash left a woman fighting for her life has been allowed to move to Washington State.
Angenette Marie Welk, 45, originally was arrested May 10 and charged with one count of driving under the influence with serious bodily harm and two counts of DUI with property damage. She was taken into custody by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper after her 2011 Chevy Avalanche slammed into the back of a 2017 Hyundai Elantra driven by 18-year-old Shiyanne Kroll, of Seattle. The crash occurred at the intersection of NW 60th Avenue and U.S. Hwy. 27 and Kroll’s passenger, 60-year-old Sandra Clarkston, of Sarasota, was critically injured.
Clarkston succumbed to her injuries four days later while being treated at Ocala Regional Medical Center and the charge against Welk was upgraded to DUI manslaughter.
Welk, who married 46-year-old Eric John Missett, of Ocala, seven days after the crash, had provided two breath samples showing .172 and .165 blood alcohol content – both twice the legal limit of .08 in Florida. She told the trooper investigating the crash that she had dropped her phone and when she looked up, she was about to collide with Kroll’s sedan.
Welk’s attorney, Stacy Youmans, of Blanchard, Merriam, Adel & Kirkland, made the request to allow her to move to Washington State. The State Attorney’s office fought the motion but Judge Steven G. Rogers eventually agreed that Welk could leave Marion County if she agreed to certain conditions, which include:
- Being confined to her residence;
- May seek employment and may go to work;
- Must provide new address and any change in the address where she resides within 24 hours;
- Must relinquish any type of passport and refrain from applying for a “physical copy” of her passport;
- Must surrender any type of driver’s license or pilot’s license;
- Is not allowed to operate any type of motorized vehicle or airplane defined in Florida Statutes;
- Cannot possess or consume alcohol or any illegal drugs without a valid prescription;
- Must be placed on a GPS monitor;
- Must not have any contact with Clarkson’s family, which includes Kroll, Keonna Sciacca, Daniel Clarkston and Keith Zetzer; and
- Must appear in person at her pretrial conference on Feb. 19.
Earlier this month, the court received notice from Moon Security that Welk had been set up with a GPS device and was being monitored at her new home address, 2513 Duportail St., Apt. C318, Richland, Wash. Moon Security’s representative Maria Rico promised to contact the court “immediately upon any and all violations committed” while Welk is on their Electronic Home Monitoring program.
Welk’s initial booking photo at the Marion County Jail, which showed her grinning with her head tilted to one side, quickly gained worldwide notoriety. It caught the attention of websites, television stations and newspapers across the globe. And it caused her attorney to come to her defense a few days after the crash.
At the time, Youmans said her client is a “a good-hearted person, a wife, mother and friend who is devastated by what happened.” She added that Welk’s “heart breaks for the Clarkston family.”
Youmans, a Florida native and former prosecutor, has extensive courtroom experience. She recently successfully represented 21-year-old Brice Hall, who escaped prosecution for a charge of manslaughter in the death of a McCall’s Tavern employee in June 2016 in The Villages. Youmans had filed a motion to dismiss the case against her client using a Stand Your Ground defense.