Screws sentenced in University Avenue hit-and-run

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Daniel Lowell Screws, Jr., 39, has been sentenced to 270 days in the Alachua County Jail and 5 years of probation in a plea deal for a hit-and-run last March.

Screws was arrested on March 19, 2022, and charged with failing to stop at the scene of a crash involving serious injury. At approximately 5:20 p.m. on March 17, a pickup truck driven by Screws was traveling eastbound on W. University Avenue and made an abrupt turn northbound onto NW 23rd Street into the path of a moped-type scooter traveling westbound. The scooter, which had the right-of-way, collided with the truck in the intersection, where the scooter driver, Mackenzie Mullen, sustained serious injuries. After a GPD officer arrived to render aid, Screws fled the scene. He was identified by license plate information found on the body-worn camera of an officer at the scene.

Due to a conflict of interest, State Attorney Brian Kramer requested that the case be assigned to a different State Attorney, so the governor assigned it to State Attorney Melissa Nelson of the Fourth Judicial Circuit.

On March 3, 2023, the formal charge of leaving a crash with serious bodily injury was amended to add a lesser charge of leaving a crash with bodily injury. Screws entered a plea of guilty to the lesser charge in a plea deal that dropped the initial charge, withheld adjudication of guilt, and sentenced Screws to 270 days in the Alachua County Jail and 5 years of probation. In addition, Screws agreed to three years of driver’s license revocation, participation in a victim impact panel as a condition of license reinstatement, a 12-hour advanced driver improvement school, court costs, and restitution of as much as $50,000 to Mullen, with $10,000 paid up front. Judge William Davis accepted the plea deal.

  • Mackenzie might have done better with Dan Newlin, although it is hard to get blood from a turnip.

    • This was criminal court. He can still ‘put the Screws’ to Screws (and his insurance company) in civil court.

      • Unfortunately no insurance of course and as fartknocker above said “can’t get blood from a turnip”

  • Another plea deal to a lesser charge. Obviously he has no regard to human life since he fled the scene knowing someone was injuried by his actions. I hope Screws holds up to his name and gets it every day he is in jail.

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