There’s no cross, no marker, nothing to denote the memory of a young life lost two years ago at the intersection of I-95 and Old Dixie Highway two years ago. Only a couple of orange-flagged utility markers jutted out of the grass shoulder there this morning. But there, Brittany Pitt, 26, died shortly after midnight on May 14, 2016.
On Wednesday, four days short of his 30th birthday, and almost two years to the day when he caused his girlfriend’s death, Allen David Adams pleaded out in the drunk-driving crash that took Pitt’s life.
Pitt was a passenger on Adams’s motorcycle that night in 2016 as they were returning from Jacksonville, where they’d been celebrating Adams’s 28th birthday. Adams made a panicked, confused maneuver as he got off I-95 at Old Dixie, catapulting Pitt off the motorcycle. On the pavement, she was struck by a passing pick-up truck, dragged a distance and killed.
Adams, of Spring Hill, had faced three charges–DUI manslaughter with a death, a second-degree felony exposing him to up to 15 years in prison, drunk driving with damage to person or property, a first degree misdemeanor with up to a year in jail, and drunk driving, a second-degree misdemeanor. With attorney Kenneth Barlow, he fought the charges for almost two years, and on May 9, pleaded no contest before Circuit Judge Dennis Craig at the courthouse in Bunnell.
The misdemeanor charges were dropped. His five-year prison sentence carries a minimum mandatory term of four years, making him eligible to leave prison in May 2022, assuming good behavior. He will then have to serve 10 years’ probation. His driver’s license is revoked for life. Aside from fines and fees totaling $736, he may still have to pay restitution.
The Florida Highway Patrol, which investigated the traffic homicide, arrested Adams at the end of March 2017 when it had concluded that Adams had failed to yield the right of way to Kenneth Tonak III, the driver at the wheel of the pick-up truck who was heading west on Old Dixie. When Adams realized his mistake, his sudden acceleration caused Pitt to fall.
When it was taken, some time after the crash, Adams’s blood-alcohol level tested 0.089, just over the legal limit of 0.08. Adams and Pitt had been staying at Tomoka State Park that night.
Pitt, a motorcycle enthusiast herself, had been with Adams two years, and she had a young son.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis.
Concerned Citizen says
Yet again another case plead out instead of going for the max. A young life is lost someone else gets to live.
There is no excuse for driving drunk. If you drive drunk and kill someone you deserve the harshest penalty possible. DUI is a choice not a mistake.
Stop pleaing out these cases !!
Nancy N. says
Concerned Citizen – are you aware that 99% of cases result in plea bargains? Do you have ANY idea how many judges and court rooms and attorneys this county would need if we DIDN’T plea out the vast majority of cases? We’d need a judicial complex the size of a large college campus, and our taxes would have to go through the roof to pay for it.
brian johnson says
the sentence is a joke..killing someone and getting 4 years!! you do the crime then do the time!! many people in the same situation get 20 years why does this man get 4!!?? i would gladly pay for enough courts to adjudicate these cases properly!! CONCERNED you are correct!!
Really says
And thats y we need a hangin judge nancy
Concerned Citizen says
@ Nancy N
Having spent over 15 years in the Public Safety field it was a rhetorical question. The sentence in question did not fit the crime. He killed someone while driving drunk. I tend to save my sympathy for the young lady and her family.
Loosing someone like this is tough. I know. Years ago I was dating someone and she was hit and killed on the way home from work. He was leaving a bar after celebrating a job promotion. He got 6 months in jail and probation.
If you kill someone while driving drunk there should be no plea bargain. I could care less how crowded the judicial system is. He should have been charged with Vehicular Manslaughter or Second Degree Murder and charged/sentenced accordingly.. Again DUI is a choice not a mistake.
The main reason we read about DUI incidents and deadly accidents so often is society no longer fears repercussions. If judges and the SA and DA’s would do their jobs then people might wake up and take this serious.
JohnX says
Clearly an Uber to Jacksonville and back would have been a wise expenditure of $200 or so. However, please note that this motorcycle driver’s BAC was only .08, which is just barely intoxicated, and under the law that was in effect just a few years ago, not intoxicated at all. This particular accident could have taken place even not intoxicated, it seems to me. So, a 4 solid years and lifetime loss of license does not seem coddling at all to me and for a horrible mistake seems about right to me. It’s more than some intentional aggravated assaults get. He will bear the consequences of his horrible unintentional mistake that took her life the rest of his life. BE WISE! TAKE A CAB, OR UBER, OR LYFT ANYTIME DRINKING IS INVOLVED!
Flatsflyer says
Alcohol and gasoline do not mix. Any amount can be dangerous to say type least!
Chris A Pickett says
The low price we put on life. Sad.
Nemesis says
I knew B. Pitt personally. She was beautiful, smart, funny, sweet and just an amazing women. We met in high school. This news crushed me. I miss her everyday.
She says
Beyond sad that young women lost her life. Banter about life and a hanging judge? For a death that was not intentional. Honestly no amount of time is going to be worse thn the fact he killed someone let alone someone he was dating. Someone he lived with. Someone he wanted to spend his life with. This poor woman lost her life and people act like he is some sick murderer like he went out and had plans to murder someone. I am sure that day haunts him everyday. Couldn’t imagine the pain he felt losing her let alone being the cause. he’s made the worst mistake of his life BUT that doesn’t make him a violent disgusting person. Life in prison for someone that none of us would be afraid of in a room alone with…come on people. I hope no one commenting becomes a judge and i oray neither do your children. I also pray that none of your children make mistakes stuoid idiotic mistake like he did and many other people in.the world.
Leeroy Jenkins says
Well said She. People are keyboard heroes and say shit like this but frankly it’s unwarranted. This man accidentally killed the love of his life, he will be a wreck over this for a lifetime, I’m sure. People gotta act so heartless i never understand why.
Anonymous says
.089 mind you is barely over the drinking limit. Hope you’ve paid your taxes
Anonymous says
I knew pitt and worked with her. I knew Allen as well and to be honest Allen deserved more than what he was gotten. I miss brittany very much, she was sweet human being and I miss her laugh and our music jams when going to work. Everyone who knew her misses her dearly.
Emily says
Allen should’ve gotten fifteen years. He’s a piece of shit that sound another woman right after Brittany died, married her so he could have conjugal visits, and then lawyered up because he knew he fucked up. He threw a memorial not for Brittany, but a pity party for himself where all of his alcoholic biker friends came. Brittany’s parents have suffered, Brittany’s son has suffered, and Allen gets to live another day. Fuck that guy. I knew them both. Brittany and I were both extremely close.