Woman who smiled for mugshot after DUI crash that killed 60-year-old woman cries as she is sentenced to 11 years in prison
A 44-year-old Florida woman who gained worldwide attention after her smiling mugshot went viral, is heading to prison. Angenette, formally Welk, Missett was sentenced to 11 years in prison and four years of probation on Thursday, May 16. Her driver’s license will be permanently revoked once she’s released, and once on probation, Circuit Judge Steven Rogers also ruled that Missett write a letter every May on "what I've learned".
Missett pleaded guilty to causing a chain reaction when she slammed into the rear end of a Hyundai Elantra that was stopped at a red light in Marion County, May 10, 2018, which resulted in the death of 60-year-old Sandra Clarkston. She was condemned worldwide, for her smiling mugshot, but at her sentencing, she was seen crying in court as she told the victim’s family, "I am truly, truly sorry. If I could change spots with your mother, I would in a heartbeat," the Ocala Star-Banner reported.
She had pleaded no contest last month to DUI manslaughter and two counts of DUI with property damage. She had told a Florida Highway Patrol trooper that she had bent down to search for the phone that she had dropped while driving, and by the time she looked up, she was about to collide with a car driven by Clarkston's 18-year old daughter Shiyanne Kroll. After getting hit by Missett's car, the vehicle which had stopped at the red light was pushed part way underneath a horse trailer pulled by a semi-truck, which had also stopped at the same red light. Clarkson, who was sitting in the passenger seat died four days later at a hospital as a result of critical injuries from the crash.
Kroll said at the court that when her mother died in the accident, Missett took "everything from me", and that she wanted her to serve 17 years in prison. However, after the sentence, Kroll said that she was happy with it. Missett, who spoke in the court before her sentencing, sobbed to Kroll, "I'd like to start by saying how terribly sorry I am for the tragic loss that you are suffering. I hope and pray that one day you'll find it in your heart to start to forgive me."