Jayden Jackson, the 22-year-old son of a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy, had played down his responsibility when he struck and killed Shaunta D. Cain, 51, with his car as he drove north on U.S. 1 in November 2022. He was arrested and charged with hit-and-run with a death, a first-degree felony with a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
Today, Jackson rejected a plea deal of four years in prison followed by probation. His attorney, Josh Davis, told Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols that Jackson will submit to an open plea when he is sentenced next week, risking significantly more than four years in prison.
Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis said the family of the victim was in agreement with the four-year plea, and was only seeking an addition to the plea of $5,000 to cover burial costs. But Lewis said the state will seek a harsher punishment if the plea is turned down.
“The state believes it’s a four-year min-man,” Lewis said, using the court jargon for minimum mandatory, “because if it’s related to alcohol, which we believe we have evidence to sufficiently prove that judge, then it would be four years up to 30. The bottom of the guidelines is, I think, 21 months. So it could be 21 months to 30, four years to 30, depending on what the court’s finding is.”
Lewis cautioned, with Jackson standing nearby at the lectern, next to Davis, that at sentencing, his position would be different, “because I do know that there was alcohol involved, so I would be asking for more than the four years,” he said. “I just want them to be aware that the state’s not going to come in here and just ask for the four years. We would be asking for a good deal more than that.”
The incident took place a little after 4 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2022. Based on law enforcement’s investigation, Cain was in the center median of U.S. 1 near Plantation Bay, at the south end of Flagler County, where “tire marks that had traveled off the roadway onto the center median prior to the debris that led up to the approximate area of collision” were observed, according to Jackson’s arrest report.
As the Florida Highway Patrol was initially investigating the hit-and-run death, a Flagler County sheriff’s commander contacted FHP to reveal that the son of Bryan Scott Jackson, a sheriff’s deputy, was possibly involved in the crash. Sheriff’s deputies, a commander and FHP troopers went to Jackson’s and his father’s house on Mahogany Boulevard in Daytona North and found the vehicle, a 2017 Chevrolet 1500, to have damage consistent with evidence from the crash scene.
Bryan Jackson told the deputies and troopers that he would not allow his son to be interviewed, on advice of an attorney, or to have the vehicle seized and searched, or for the younger Jackson to submit to a voluntary buccal swab or to have his cell phone examined. All of that was subsequently accomplished through search warrants. A witness told investigators that he or she had been with Jackson at a bar in Daytona Beach before the crash. Police interviewed two witnesses.
“On the day that this happened, Mr. Jackson was out drinking with another friend,” Lewis had said in court in a previous hearing last May. “And during the course of that, within several hours after that, the allegations–and I think the evidence will show–is he hit a human being, driving down the road. He had explicit knowledge that he hit a human being, even though he later lied to his father and other individuals and said it was a deer.”
Davis, the defense attorney, has contested Lewis’s claim of drinking. If that was the case, the state would have filed a different charge, Davis said.
Today, the argument shifted to the application of a minimum mandatory, and whether there was any possibility of a “downward departure,” or a sentence that would go below the minimum mandatory.
“I know that there are some times when a downward departure cannot be applied,” the judge said, recalling a similar case a few years ago where she could not depart from the minimum mandatory. “Now, my recollection is not flawless.”
“I want him to understand, so I don’t want this to come back at a later time,” Lewis said, “if the state is able to prove alcohol is related, and the court makes that finding, then you cannot depart below that four years. All of those mitigating factors or departure reasons for a score sheet departure are not applicable to the four-year minimum mandatory in a leaving-the-scene with death.”
Davis wanted to go over the law with the judge and Lewis in chambers. The judge instead pulled up the law before her. “I’m fairly certain the state is correct on this one,” she said.
Lewis is seldom wrong. To him, the law is clear. “I pulled that statute up right here,” he said. “We have to interpret it from what it says.”
The judge said she was also pretty confident that Lewis is right, but she wants Jackson to be fully informed. “If this court does not have the ability to downward depart, then I want him to have the ability to understand that this is as good as it gets.” She added: “I hate to see him gamble, because if it does go forward, the state is not going to be asking for that minimum, and it can go up a lot.” Jackson has been free on $50,000 bond since his arrest a year ago.
