A 49-year-old woman accused in 2014 of driving under the influence and causing a wreck that killed one man and sent another to a Florence hospital was found guilty Friday afternoon.
A jury of Tammy Dianne Brown's peers took less than an hour-and-a-half to decide the woman was guilty of felony DUI resulting in death and felony DUI resulting in serious bodily injury.
Brown was sentenced to 15 years in prison on the felony DUI resulting in death charge and received a 12-year concurrent sentence on the felony DUI resulting in serious bodily injury charge.
Brown was accused of causing the late night wreck in August 2014 that took the life of 34-year-old Maurelio DeLeon of Manning and sent another unidentified man to a Florence hospital with a traumatic brain injury.
DeLeon was declared dead at the scene of the wreck, which happened on Paxville Highway between Home Branch Road and J.W. Rhames Road. The late Clarendon County Coroner Hayes Samuels said at the time that DeLeon died from blunt force trauma to the chest and neck.
According to the S.C. Highway Patrol, DeLeon was driving a 1994 Dodge Dakota and was struck by Brown’s 1999 Hyundai, causing the truck to veer off the highway and strike a tree.
Brown's blood alcohol content was later determined by testing at the Clarendon County Detention Center to be .21, nearly three times the legal limit of .08.
“I don’t know what happened,” Brown said during her bond hearing in 2014. “I saw an 18-wheeler coming toward us, and he was trying to pass me. I guess he thought he had time. I don’t know what to do now. I didn’t know anything about anyone being killed until earlier today. I didn’t do this. I would never do anything like this.”
Brown said that she had been at a small cookout, and that a friend had ridden in her car with her with a cup of alcohol. She said the cup was still in her car at the time of the wreck, but that she had not been drinking.
“He just went around me, and all this happened,” Brown said, tearfully. “The next thing I know, the airbags are throwing me back.”
