BRADENTON, Fla. — The Sarasota woman charged with driving drunk head-on into a Florida state trooper during the Sunshine Skyway 10K race in March 2022 appeared in court on Wednesday afternoon.
Kristen Watts, 53, appeared before Circuit Judge Charles Sniffen on Wednesday afternoon. She was expected to plead guilty, but the judge said he preferred to handle the plea and sentencing all in one hearing.
Watts, therefore, is expected to plea guilty on Nov. 6 to charges of driving under the influence and fleeing and eluding law enforcement.
The State Attorney's Office has not offered her a plea deal and is not expected to make a recommendation. Instead, Watts will enter an open plea, leaving it up to the judge.
Master Trooper Toni Schuck, who has spoken out before about the accident, was not present in the courtroom on Wednesday.
On March 6, 2022, Schuck heard over her police radio that a driver — later identified as Watts — had driven through the barricades on the Skyway and was not stopping for other officers.
Schuck, who was about half a mile from the start of the race, instinctively positioned her patrol car in the middle of the road, hoping to get Watts to stop. Instead, Watts drove head-on into her vehicle.
Since the crash, Watts has spent eight months in jail and 50 days in a residential rehab and has been sober since the crash, according to her defense attorney Bruce Denson.
"We want the opportunity to tell Ms. Watts' side of the story," Densen said to reporters outside the courthouse on Wednesday afternoon. "We have heard Trooper Schuck's side of it. It's very heroic. But there's an equally heroic story for Ms. Watts to tell about what she's done since the accident."
The defense plans to ask Watts to be sentenced to time served and placed on probation, he added.
