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19-year-old sentenced to 13 years in fatal DUI crash on Courtney Campbell Causeway

 
Adrian Dothe pleaded guilty in October to charges from the crash.
Adrian Dothe pleaded guilty in October to charges from the crash.
Published Dec. 17, 2016

TAMPA — Adrian Dothe, then 18, had downed more than a dozen beers with friends when he pushed his car past 100 mph along the Courtney Campbell Causeway.

In seconds, it spun out of control, crashing into a guardrail and another car and throwing two of his friends, cousins, through the back window. One of them died.

Dothe sought help from passing drivers — not for his friends, but to get away. He gave up and ran west down the causeway toward his home in Clearwater.

On Friday, wearing an orange jumpsuit with wrists shackled, Dothe, 19, stood and apologized, hoping for the lenient sentence he qualified for as a youthful offender.

No, said Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher Sabella. Calling Dothe a danger, Sabella sentenced him to 13 years in prison.

"This is one of the threats to our society that I fear the most," Sabella said. "His family, your family, my family are all potential victims of this type of crime."

Dothe pleaded guilty in October to charges of DUI manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident involving death, and DUI with property damage, all stemming from the Jan. 25 crash.

He had spent the evening and early morning at the Palladium nightclub, 5305 S Armenia Ave., Tampa, with his girlfriend, Leidy SanJuan, 18, and their friends, Jonathan Mendoza-Pena and his cousin David Mendoza, both 20.

Dothe later told police he drank at least 15 beers that night. He also admitted to smoking two marijuana joints, and a blood test showed traces of the sedative midazolam in his body, prosecutors said.

The four left the club around 3 a.m. Dothe insisted on driving, resisting his friends' efforts to take the keys to the Pontiac Sunfire. Dothe sped toward the causeway, heading home.

The airbag control module in the Pontiac recorded a speed of 103 mph five seconds before the car struck the guardrail, according to testimony at Friday's sentencing hearing by Michael White, a Tampa police traffic homicide detective.

Dothe had just passed another car and jerked the steering wheel to the right — "acting goofy," his lawyer said. He lost control, hit the guardrail, veered back into the travel lanes and collided with another car.

The two cousins, sitting in back without seat belts fastened, were thrown through the rear window. Mendoza was cut by glass and landed on his stomach, he testified. He got up and went to help his injured cousin.

Dothe, bleeding from the head, looked over the damage, then left. Clearwater police arrested him a half-hour later.

"That night, I saw he's not a real friend," Mendoza said, "because he left my cousin on the ground to die."

After Dothe's blood was taken at St. Joseph's Hospital hours later, he registered an alcohol content of 0.26 — more than three times the limit at which drivers are deemed impaired.

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"My son is good. He's not bad," his mother, Buenaventura Mesquite, said in Spanish on Friday. "I remember the goals and dreams when he tells me he wants to finish high school. He was a youth role model for his siblings. His brothers and sisters miss him very much."

Dothe was described as a young man born and raised to hardworking parents. He was a cook at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza and used his earnings to help support four younger siblings. His goal was a college degree in electrical engineering.

But when it came time to hear from relatives of Mendoza-Pena, the image faded.

"He not only killed my nephew that day, he has killed all the family members," said the victim's aunt, Reyna Pena, "My sister is dead while being alive. With an apology, our nephew is not being returned back to us. Forgiveness should be given to him by God, not us."

Dothe's attorney, Jorge Chalela, said his client has acknowledged having a substance abuse problem and vowed to seek help. He implored the judge to sentence Dothe as a youthful offender, a classification that could have netted a sentence of probation and community control.

But Assistant State Attorney Barbara Coleman stressed the recklessness of his actions.

"This is a very adult crime, and it should warrant adult sanctions," she said.

Contact Dan Sullivan at dsullivan@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3386. Follow @TimesDan