Woman in smiling mugshot faces DUI manslaughter charge

© Marion County Sheriff's Office/Orlando Sentinel/TNS Angenette Welk, 44, was charged with a felony DUI with great bodily harm and two misdemeanor counts involving drunken driving in the afternoon collision, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office in Florida…

By Stephen Hudak, Orlando Sentinel

A Florida woman who flashed a wide smile in her jail mugshot after a DUI arrest earlier this month has been charged with manslaughter and her new mugshot is more somber.

Angenette Marie Welk "is a good-hearted person, a wife, mother and friend who is devastated by what happened," her lawyer Stacy Youmans explained to the Ocala Star Banner.

Youmans accompanied Welk, 44, of Ocala when she turned herself in Saturday to Marion County Jail authorities in Ocala. The new charge, which unlike the previous charge, carries mandatory prison time.

DUI manslaughter is a felony offense punishable by a minimum mandatory prison sentence of 4 years. The prison sentence for DUI manslaughter can be up to 15 years and carry significant fines under Florida state statues.

She had been charged with DUI causing serious bodily harm and DUI causing property damage.

Welk is charged in the death of Sandra Clarkson, 60, who died at Ocala Regional Medical Center on May 14, four days after the crash - and four days after Welk's smiling mugshot which upset Clarkson's daughters.

A GoFundMe page has been established to help pay for Clarkson's funeral expenses. The crowd-funding page, which lists 11 news reports about Welk's smiling mugshot, hopes to raise $2,500 to pay for Clarkson to be flown to Kentucky to be buried beside her mom in a family cemetery.

"Her heart breaks for the Clarkston family," said Youmans of the law firm Blanchard, Merriam, Adel & Kirkland.

At the time of the crash, troopers had arrested Welk and charged her with DUI with serious bodily injury and two counts of DUI with property damage.

Her blood alcohol content was 0.172 percent, which is more than twice the state's limit of 0.08 percent at which a driver is considered intoxicated.