John Jefferson
From left to right: Tallullah Ellis and her daughter Tammy Hughes (Kent-Forest Lawn Funeral Home), Jacob Hunter Manuel in court (State Attorney’s Office).
A Florida man who killed two women after a high-speed car crash in 2022 was sentenced to decades behind bars after taking a plea deal.
Jacob Manuel, 25, accepted a plea deal and was sentenced on Tuesday to 40 years at the Florida Department of Corrections, according to a release from the Florida State’s Attorney’s Office. The family of the two women killed in the crash, Tallullah Ellis, 78, and Tammy Hughes, 57, were supportive of the plea and were also present during the sentencing. Manuel could have faced a life sentence if he had gone to trial and been convicted.
On May 10, 2022, Ellis was driving herself, her daughter Hughes, and a then-9-year-old — the granddaughter of Hughes and great-granddaughter of Ellis — when Manuel’s Dodge Challenger slammed into them from behind, sending their car into a power pole. Ellis and Hughes were pronounced dead at the scene, and the 9-year-old was critically injured and survived. Manuel’s vehicle caught fire and he was pulled out by an eyewitness to the crash.
Manuel was caught on surveillance cameras at a Panama City bar earlier that evening leaving the establishment carrying an “alcoholic beverage.” It was later determined that Manuel’s blood alcohol level taken hours after the crash was 0.099 and 0.098, above Florida’s legal limit of 0.08. Further tests on the data from Manuel’s vehicle also showed that he was driving between 100 and 130 MPH in a 45 MPH zone, according to an investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.
Manuel was charged with two counts of DUI manslaughter and one count of DUI with serious bodily injury. The case was set for trial before Manuel agreed to the plea deal. Florida State Attorney Larry Basford said a jury had been lined up and ready to serve the morning the plea deal was accepted.
WMBB, a local ABC affiliate, was in the courtroom where a letter from the victim’s family was read before the plea deal was accepted. The letter, read by Basford on behalf of the grandson and nephew of the victims, read, “To walking into my grandparent’s house and hearing police radio from the kind officer that was sitting with my papa, who was alone at home, listening to him, praying to God after being told that his wife of 59 years and one and only daughter were not going to be walking in the front door that night. Seeing my five little cousins crying for their God, knowing that, Your Honor, is just one night of the nightmare that we have been living for the past two and a half years.”
As part of the plea deal, Manuel must serve 85% of his sentence before being eligible for parole. He received credit for 655 days served.
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