WWE star ‘Sunny’ Sytch receives 17-year sentence in DUI manslaughter case
Former WWE star Tamara “Sunny” Sytch was sentenced to 17 years in prison and eight years of probation on Monday following a hearing related to a DUI manslaughter case in Volusia County.
Sytch was arrested last year on charges including DUI manslaughter in connection to a crash that killed 75-year-old Julian Lasseter from Ormond Beach. Court records show she pleaded no contest to DUI manslaughter and other charges in August.
A pre-sentencing memorandum said that on March 25, 2022, Sytch was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and driving at a high rate of speed on North Yonge Street in Ormond Beach when she collided into Lasseter’s car, which was stopped at a red light. Lasseter’s car then crashed into another car in front of it.
Lasseter, a former teacher and property appraiser, was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where he was pronounced dead. Sytch was also taken for treatment and was later released. She was arrested weeks after the incident at the Hard Rock Hotel in Daytona Beach.
A toxicology report found her blood alcohol levels were more than four times the legal limit, according to the office of State Attorney R. J. Larizza. Ormond Beach Police said they found an opened bottle of vodka in her vehicle and cannabis in her system.
Sytch faced up to 26 years in prison for one count of DUI manslaughter and one count of driving while license suspended with death. She also faced four counts of DUI with damage to person and two counts of DUI with damage to property.
Her record shows she has been arrested repeatedly for impaired driving in the past, including at least six arrests involving DUIs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
State Attorney Larizza called the defendant’s driving record “horrendous.”
“She was death on wheels,” he said in a news release about the sentencing. “It was only a matter of time before her drunk driving killed an innocent and unsuspecting individual.”
Her public defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sytch quickly rose to fame in the 1990s as one of WWE’s first female performers. She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
