Cause of death revealed for late Florida woman convicted in DUI crash that killed toddler
SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. - The cause of death for Shona Wallace, the Florida woman who died weeks after being convicted in a DUI crash that killed a toddler, has been revealed.
Wallace, 53, died on April 13 – just days before her sentencing in the killing of a 17-month-old girl. Her death was announced by a Seminole County judge and her defense attorneys at a hearing in mid-April.
On Tuesday, the Medical Examiner of Districts 5 and 24 shared Wallace's autopsy report with FOX 35. The cause of death is listed as end stage hepatic cirrhosis with encephalopathy. Dilated cardiomyopathy was a significant condition contributing to her death, the autopsy report said.
She was found guilty by a jury in March of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide in the death of Adalyn Zisa, and DUI for injuring her parents, Shannon and Dane Zisa, in the June 2019 incident.
The woman's defense attorneys filed a motion asking the judge to vacate her guilty verdict after her death, but a Seminole County judge rejected it. The attorneys argued that Wallace should not have been adjudicated guilty because she was not present at the hearing, according to Seminole County court records.
The attorneys said Wallace had "a constitutional right to be present at the rendering of the judgment, which was impossible due to her death six days prior," the court document stated. They also alleged the court was "obligated" to have Wallace's fingerprints manually printed or electronically captured, because she had been adjudicated guilty of a felony, and that the court was required to certify that the fingerprints taken were that of Wallace.
In June 2019, Shannon and Dane Zisa were on a bike ride with their daughter, Adalyn, who was being towed in a bicycle trailer, according to the police report, They were riding on the sidewalk on the northwest corner of State Route 414 and Eden Park Road.
Police said Wallace's vehicle, a 2000 Mazda 646, left the roadway and struck the family on the sidewalk around 7:30 p.m.
Witnesses told police that Wallace's vehicle was seen driving erratically when it left the roadway and struck the family, according to the report. One witness reported seeing Wallace fall out of the vehicle.
Shannon Zisa previosuly said she is ready to move on with their lives.
"If this was your family, how would you want to be treated? I honestly don’t know what the point that they are trying to make with this. I don’t know if they don’t like to lose; I find that hard to believe when they work in the public defender's office," she said. "They need to accept that she was guilty, she was guilty the day she did it, she was guilty until she took her dying breath, they need to move forward; I'm sure the public defender's office has clients that are living that need representation."
Prosecutors said Wallace was under the influence of fentanyl when the crash happened.