Dustin Edward Halstead, Florida inmate H52364. born 1993, incarceration intake March 2018 at age 25, scheduled for release August 2028
Vehicular Manslaughter, Leaving Crash Scene where a Death has Occurred
In January 2018, nearly four years after the incident, Halstead was convicted.
Workers were finishing construction work on South Florida Avenue in Lakeland in the early hours of the morning on July 23, 2014. Workers were pulling up cones to move to another work site down the road when a worker he was struck and killed by Dustin Halstead, who was driving home after drinking at three different bars.
At the end of a week-long trial, jurors convicted Halstead vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash involving death. Halstead was facing 45 years in prison.
Halstead went to three different Lakeland bars, consuming a couple of drinks at each location – he closed his last tab at 1:45 a.m. As Halstead’s vehicle approached the construction zone, his vehicle drifted to the left. He struck several construction barrels before hitting a worker just after 2 a.m.
Another worker heard the collision and ran over to see a dark, boxy vehicle driving away from where another's worke's body was laying in the roadway. Halstead did not stop.
Halstead’s girlfriend was in the vehicle with him at the time of the crash. She was looking at her phone when she felt the impact and did not see construction barrels or a human.
After reading an article about how someone died on South Florida Avenue, the girl friend sent the news item to Halstead – who told her not to tell anyone.
But the girlfriend had already mentioned it to her roommate, who called the Lakeland Police Department. When police contacted the girlfriend, she confirmed Halstead was driving that night and told officers where he could be found.
Police found dents and blood spatter on the hood of Halstead’s vehicle. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed the DNA matched that of of the victim, Shelby Shull.
Halstead told detectives that he remembered hitting traffic barrels but didn’t stop because he didn’t think that was a crime.
The prosecution argued at trial that the DNA proves Shull’s body was on top of the hood, which was directly in Halstead’s line of sight.
But the defense argued the DNA was transferred from a construction barrel – that Halstead drove by after Shull had been hit by another car. When Halstead ran into the barrels, they claimed, the DNA ended up on his hood.
The prosecution reminded jurors there was testimony showing the barrels only weigh 30 pounds, and the denting on Halstead’s car was more consistent with a 200 pound victim. There was also a smear on hood, which could only have come from hitting Shull.
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