East Naples man Kiereek Seymour back in court in 2014 DUI, pursuit case

An East Naples man accused of driving drunk and fleeing law enforcement officers more than three years ago was back before a Collier Circuit Court judge Monday after his original sentence was vacated because the judge found an error had occurred during his sentencing in 2016. 

Kiereek Seymour, 28, had received a three-year sentence from Collier Circuit Judge Frederick Hardt in connection with a fleeing and eluding charge stemming from a December 2014 incident where police say Seymour led them on a high-speed chase through Marco Island before crashing into a palm tree and fleeing on foot. 

In January 2016, Seymour entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors who had also charged him with DUI, obstructing an officer without violence and driving with a suspended or revoked license in connection with the Marco Island incident. 

He received time served and probation for those charges, court documents show. 

But Seymour’s attorneys argued in a motion filed a month after the January 2016 sentencing that their client had not been properly notified before entering his plea. 

More: Judge: Drunken driving defendant’s arrests ‘had no impact on him’

More: Man accused in May fatal crash arrested on second DUI charge in less than two years

Specifically, the defense attorneys said, prosecutors had amended the fleeing and eluding charge “unbeknownst” to their client and enhanced it from a third-degree felony to fleeing and eluding a law enforcement officer with lights and sirens activated with wanton disregard to safety of a person or property, a second-degree felony. 

At a hearing in June 2016, Seymour’s attorneys argued that the officer’s sirens were not activated during the pursuit of Seymour, court documents show. 

In an August 2016 order to vacate the sentence, Hardt agreed with Seymour’s attorneys, writing that “the officer’s dash cam clearly demonstrates that his siren was not activated.” 

“A defendant cannot enter a plea to a non-existent crime,” Hardt wrote.

However, because the negotiated plea agreement related to charges in the Marco Island case and charges Seymour faced in a separate case in connection with a fatal May 2014 crash in East Naples, Hardt wrote that he had to vacate all sentences in the two cases.

Prosecutors had initially charged Seymour with DUI manslaughter in the May 2014 crash that killed Sandra Maddux, 54. But they reduced that charge just days before the 2016 sentencing to a misdemeanor DUI count, citing challenges in proving Seymour's intoxication level and responsibility for the fatal crash.

More:Man convicted of DUI manslaughter in Estates crash seeks appeal, release on bond

More:Lehigh Acres woman facing 23 DUI, hit-and-run charges after crash at Gulf Coast Town Center

In their February 2016 motion to vacate his sentence, Seymour’s attorneys argued that Hardt used the Marco Island case to “try and punish” Seymour for the DUI manslaughter charge that had been dropped.

The DUI manslaughter case will also start anew and has a case management conference scheduled next month.

On Monday, Seymour — who had been out on bond until Hardt revoked his bond following an arrest in Lee County earlier this year — found himself back before Hardt for the start of his trial related to the alleged 2014 Marco Island chase. 

Seymour now faces a count of fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, a third-degree felony, and misdemeanor charges of obstructing an officer without violence, DUI, and driving with a suspended or revoked license.

Jurors on Monday heard from Marco Island Officer Brian Granneman, who testified he gave chase to a Toyota RAV-4 driven by Seymour after he noticed him speeding across the S.S. Jolley Bridge, entering the island, in the early morning hours of Dec. 31, 2014. 

Granneman said the car was driving 50 mph through the 35 mph zone and then sped up as he pursued it.

Seymour crashed into a palm tree and fled on foot when the officer arrived and ordered him to the ground, Granneman said. Authorities say Seymour tried to escape by jumping in a canal and swimming but was unsuccessful because of strong currents. A K-9 unit later found Seymour hiding in a garbage can at a condo complex, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors on Monday also showed jurors a video of Seymour’s field sobriety test in a jail hallway and a video recording of Seymour in the back of a police car. In the video from the police car, Seymour can be heard asking the officer if it was he who was pursuing him.

“The cop that was behind me — was that you?” Seymour can be heard saying. “That was you right?”

Seymour’s defense attorney Peter Adrien during opening statements Monday told jurors that Granneman did not turn on his lights and sirens and did not use loudspeakers to tell Seymour to pull over as he pursued him.

“One of the elements of fleeing and eluding a police officer is the police officer needs to give a lawful order,” he said. “That didn’t happen here. He did not give a lawful order.” 

More:Naples man charged with DUI after striking pregnant bicyclist, FHP reports

More:Rollover crash at US 41 and Immokalee Road being investigated as DUI