20-year-old sentenced to 10 years in prison for vehicular homicide
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Clayton Deneal Wamsley, 20, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by two years of probation, after entering a plea of nolo contendere to vehicular homicide for the death of Matthew Umanos in January 2025.
A Gainesville Police Department investigation found that at about 5:41 p.m. on January 2, 2025, Wamsley was driving his car northbound on NE 7th Street, ran the stop sign at NE 16th Avenue, and hit Umanos, who was crossing NE 7th Street in a marked crosswalk. Umanos was thrown about 124 feet before landing and striking a cement culvert; he was transported to UF Health Shands, where he died a short time later. Umanos’s dog was also hit and killed.
Wamsley was still entrapped in his car when law enforcement arrived. A check of his license found that he had an identification card but had never had a driver’s license.
Post Miranda, Wamsley reportedly said he had been upset and thinking about harming himself at his home and decided to drive around the block from his home on NE 6th Terrace. He said he was driving north on NE 7th Street when he got a text message, picked up his phone from the dash, and started reading the message. He said he looked up as he passed the stop sign, saw the victim, and swerved to the left to avoid the victim. He said he was sorry.
A victim impact statement from Umanos’s mother described his involvement in the community: she said he worked for GACAR, served on a charity that helps find affordable homes for people, spoke with local officials about issues, and “brought joy to all who met him.” She wrote that Umanos’s brother, who had been visiting from New York City and was walking with Umanos at the time of the accident, had a stroke eight days later and now lives with his mother.
On July 14, Wamsley entered a plea of nolo contendere to charges of vehicular homicide and driving without a valid driver’s license; a charge of careless operation of a motor vehicle with no license, resulting in death, was dropped. According to the plea document, the maximum sentence for the charges is more than 24 years in prison.
Judge Robert Groeb sentenced Wamsley to 10 years in state prison with credit for 525 days served, followed by two years of probation, for the vehicular homicide charge; Wamsley was sentenced to 60 days in jail, with credit for 60 days served, for driving without a valid license.
Other conditions include restitution of $25,000 to an insurance company; following any treatment recommended after a drug, alcohol, and mental health evaluation; abstaining from alcohol and illegal drugs; random urine testing; and a permanent suspension of his driver’s license.