Gainesville man sentenced to 7.5 years in prison after DUI manslaughter plea

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jason Lee Saul, 40, has been sentenced to 7.5 years in prison after entering a plea of nolo contendere to DUI manslaughter in the death of Andra Paul Driggers after a crash on January 22, 2021; he will serve 7.5 years of probation after completing his prison sentence.

According to Florida Highway Patrol investigation, Driggers was driving a pickup truck and was stopped at the red light at NW 43rd Street and U.S. Hwy 441 at about 5:48 p.m. on January 22, 2021, when Saul, who was also driving a pickup truck, allegedly rear-ended Driggers’s truck. Driggers’s truck then hit an SUV with two occupants. Driggers died following the crash.

A Florida Highway Patrol Trooper reported that Saul’s eyes were glassy and that Saul declined to provide a voluntary blood sample because he didn’t want the results to cause his parole to be violated; he was on probation for cocaine possession at the time of the crash.

After test results came back from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that showed “the recent ingestion of cocaine” in Saul’s blood sample at the time of the crash, a sworn complaint was filed against Saul in June 2022; formal charges and an arrest warrant were filed on April 4, 2023. The event reconstruction report also found that Saul was driving at least 74 mph in the 50 mph zone just before hitting the Driggers’s truck.

On March 13, 2025, Saul entered a plea of nolo contendere to DUI manslaughter, a charge with a maximum sentence of 15 years and a minimum mandatory sentence of 48 months in prison and permanent driver’s license revocation. The plea included a request to postpone sentencing until mid-May “to wind up outstanding business obligations,” and Judge William Davis imposed the sentence on May 13.