Fort Lauderdale Criminal Attorney Blog
Facing a DUI manslaughter charge is one of the most devastating experiences a person can endure — legal or otherwise. The weight of a tragic accident, the grief of a victim’s family, the attention of law enforcement and prosecutors, and the very real prospect of decades in prison, all descending at once. If you or someone you love is confronting this situation in Broward County, you need to understand what Florida law now demands, and why retaining an experienced Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyer immediately may be the single most consequential decision you make.
What Trenton’s Law Does to the Sentencing Landscape
Under Florida Statute § 316.193(3)(c)(3), DUI manslaughter has long been classified as a second-degree felony, carrying a maximum of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. A mandatory minimum of four years in state prison applies. The Florida Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet, which accounts for victim injury points, typically pushes the recommended sentence for a first-time offender to well over ten years before a judge has said a single word.
That was already a severe framework. Then came Trenton’s Law.
House Bill 687, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis and effective October 1, 2025, was named for Trenton Stewart, an 18-year-old Stetson University freshman killed in Jacksonville by a wrong-way driver who already carried a prior DUI manslaughter conviction out of Broward County. The legislation fundamentally reshapes the consequences for repeat impaired driving offenders. Under HB 687, any person with a prior conviction for DUI manslaughter, BUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide, or vessel homicide who is subsequently charged with one of those same offenses now faces a first-degree felony — with a maximum sentence of 30 years in Florida state prison. There is no look-back period. A DUI conviction from twenty years ago is as qualifying as one from last year.
The law also elevates the offense ranking on Florida’s Criminal Punishment Code severity chart: DUI manslaughter with a prior qualifying conviction is now ranked at Level 9. That’s the same tier as armed robbery and aggravated battery with great bodily harm. The sentencing implications of that reclassification are severe and immediate.
For prosecutors in Broward County, the message from Tallahassee is clear: pursue these cases aggressively, and the law will support you at every step.
The Fear of a 30-Year Sentence Is Real — But So Is the Defense
If you are reading this because someone you care about is under investigation or has been charged, the fear you are feeling is entirely understandable. But fear, however justified, should not paralyze you. What matters most in the first hours and days after an arrest is not how the charge is labeled — it is how quickly and effectively a defense attorney gets to work.
Here is the foundational legal reality the prosecution will never advertise: even under Trenton’s Law’s enhanced framework, the State must still prove every element of DUI manslaughter beyond a reasonable doubt. That means proving the defendant was operating the vehicle, that they were impaired or had a BAC of 0.08% or higher, and — critically — that their impaired operation caused or contributed to the death of another person. So while the State is not required to prove that the defendant’s drinking alone caused the accident, causation must still be established. A defendant cannot be convicted of DUI manslaughter simply because their vehicle was “involved in” an accident. The operation of the vehicle must have caused or contributed to the fatal outcome. That is a meaningful legal threshold, and one that a skilled defense attorney can challenge.
Accident Reconstruction: Contesting the State’s Version of Events
In DUI manslaughter cases, the prosecution will almost always retain an accident reconstruction expert to establish that the defendant’s impaired driving caused the crash. The defense has every right — and every strategic incentive — to do the same.
An independent accident reconstruction expert retained by the defense can analyze the same physical evidence the State relies upon: skid marks, vehicle damage patterns, debris fields, final resting positions, electronic data recorder (black box) information, road conditions, sight lines, and witness accounts. If the evidence supports a conclusion that another driver’s negligence, a road defect, a mechanical failure, or a victim’s own conduct was the primary or contributing cause of the collision, that finding can be devastating to the prosecution’s case. If the defendant’s operation of the vehicle did not cause or contribute to causing the accident, the DUI manslaughter charge fails, regardless of the defendant’s BAC. Early retention of a qualified reconstruction expert, before evidence degrades or is lost, is one of the most impactful steps a defense attorney can take.
Challenging the Blood Draw: A Critical Constitutional Battleground
In fatal crash cases, breathalyzers are rarely available. Law enforcement will typically seek a blood draw, either at the scene, in an ambulance, or at the hospital, to establish BAC. This is where one of the most potent constitutional challenges in DUI manslaughter defense arises.
The United States Supreme Court held in Missouri v. McNeely, 569 U.S. 141 (2013), that the natural dissipation of alcohol in the bloodstream does not, standing alone, constitute an exigent circumstance sufficient to justify a warrantless blood draw. The Court was unambiguous: in routine drunk-driving investigations where officers can reasonably obtain a warrant without undermining the efficacy of the search, the Fourth Amendment requires that they do so. Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal reinforced this principle in State v. Liles, 191 So. 3d 484 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016), confirming that law enforcement must obtain a warrant or consent for a blood draw, or demonstrate a recognized exception to the warrant requirement.
Florida Statute § 316.1933 purports to permit a forced, warrantless blood draw in cases involving death or serious bodily injury — but that statute’s constitutionality remains actively contested in light of McNeely. If law enforcement obtained a blood draw without a warrant and without demonstrating genuine exigent circumstances beyond mere alcohol dissipation, a Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyer can file a motion to suppress that evidence. If the blood results are suppressed, the prosecution’s impairment case may collapse entirely.
Beyond the warrant question, blood draw evidence in DUI manslaughter cases can be challenged on independent grounds: expired collection kits, improper storage, chain of custody failures, laboratory error, and compromised calibration or testing protocols. These are not technical abstractions — they are legitimate evidentiary vulnerabilities that an experienced defense attorney will pursue methodically from the earliest stages of the case.
Why Early Intervention Changes the Entire Trajectory
The time between an accident and a defense attorney’s first involvement is not neutral. Evidence is collected. Witnesses give statements. Accident scenes are cleared. Electronic data is preserved — or is not. The choices made in those first 72 hours by law enforcement shape the prosecution’s case, and the defense has every right to be an active participant in that process as quickly as possible.
An experienced Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyer retained immediately after a DUI manslaughter arrest can appear at the bond hearing and advocate for reasonable pretrial release conditions; begin an independent investigation of the accident scene before physical evidence is lost; retain and direct qualified expert witnesses in accident reconstruction and forensic toxicology; scrutinize the blood draw process for constitutional and procedural deficiencies; review the validity of any prior conviction the State intends to use to trigger Trenton’s Law’s enhanced sentencing — because the prosecution must prove the prior conviction beyond a reasonable doubt, and old plea records with missing documentation can be contested; and engage in early negotiations with the Broward State Attorney’s Office, where the strength or weakness of the causation evidence significantly affects the outcome.
A DUI manslaughter charge, even under the enhanced framework of Trenton’s Law, is not the end of the road. The law is complex, the evidence is contestable, and the difference between a thirty-year sentence and a negotiated resolution that avoids a first-degree felony conviction often comes down to how effectively, and how early, the defense was built.
If you are facing these charges in Fort Lauderdale or anywhere in Broward County, the time to act is now. We can help.
Call Fort Lauderdale Criminal Defense Attorney Richard Ansara at (954) 761-4011. Serving Broward County.
