Mother of crash victim speaks out after state attorney chooses not to file charges in DUI manslaughter case | FOX 35 Orlando
Expand / Collapse search
☰

Mother of crash victim speaks out after state attorney chooses not to file charges in DUI manslaughter case

By
Published  April 16, 2025 7:44pm EDT
Osceola County
FOX 35 Orlando

Mother of DUI manslaughter case victim speaks out

Mother of crash victim speaks out after State Attorney chooses not to file charges in DUI manslaughter case. FOX 35's Marie Edinger has the latest from Osceola County.

The Brief

    • The mother of crash victim Giovanna Anderson is speaking out after the State Attorney’s Office declined to file DUI manslaughter charges in a 2022 Kissimmee crash due to conflicting witness statements and inconclusive evidence.
    • Prosecutors said they were unable to meet the burden of proof despite extensive investigation, leaving the victim’s family demanding justice.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The mother of crash victim Giovanna Anderson is speaking out after the State Attorney’s Office declined to file DUI manslaughter charges.

The backstory:

Angelina Anderson and Giovanna Anderson were both killed in a December 2022 crash in Kissimmee.

The Florida Highway Patrol says the driver of the car was going about 106 miles an hour down State Road 535, near the intersection with US Highway 192.

As they turned into a hotel parking lot, they lost control of the vehicle and hit a cement pole.

There was someone arrested and accused of DUI manslaughter, but now, the state attorney says she will not be pursuing those charges.

What we know:

Here are the complications with the case:

  • There were three survivors of the crash, and one witness.
  • All of them told law enforcement different things about where everyone was seated in the car, and who was driving.
  • Some of the details of those stories wound up changing over time too.
  • Then, DNA evidence couldn’t prove one story over another.
  • The Medical Examiner’s findings couldn’t either.
  • Prosecutors just didn’t see a way to win.

What we don't know:

There are several shops around the area that have surveillance cameras, though many were not functional at the time of the crash, or erased video from the day it happened. We don’t know what that evidence may have shown.

Some of the passengers in the car have made other allegations about the drivers switching seats and the reasoning for that behavior. Law enforcement and FOX 35 News have not been able to verify that information.

What they're saying:

"You're telling me my daughter life was worth nothing? No. My daughter was somebody going somewhere," said Areizaga. "All I want is justice for my daughter. I don't care about anything else."

In the end, the assistant state attorney wrote that he’d "done everything possible to determine what actually happened in this case…" but through those efforts "the evidence has gotten weaker, not stronger."

And he just couldn’t meet the burden of proof – the exact thing State Attorney Monique Worrell discussed earlier this week. She says her office has a backlog of 13,500 cases – and in most of them, they just don’t have enough evidence to move forward.

"A law enforcement officer needs what is called probable cause to make an arrest," State Attorney Monique Worrell said on Monday. "Now once it's passed to us, we have a much, much higher burden of proof, and that's called proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

Areizaga says her daughter was one of those 13,000 cases.

"I’m just not taking nothing. I won't accept that for my daughter's death," Areizaga said. "I'm her voice now. I gotta fight for her."

STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 35 ORLANDO:

The Source: The information in this article comes from reporting and interviews done by FOX 35's Marie Edinger.

Osceola CountyKissimmeeCrime and Public Safety