Former St. Johns County dispatcher charged with DUI manslaughter more than a year after deadly crash

A St. Augustine woman has been charged with DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide more than a year after a crash at a St. Johns County intersection that killed a 52-year-old driver, according to a Florida Highway Patrol arrest report. Lindsey Elizabeth Rollins, 38, a former St. Johns County Fire Rescue dispatcher, was arrested on Sept. 29, 2026, four days after a St. Johns County judge signed a warrant for her arrest. Investigators say data from her pickup truck showed it was traveling 86 mph in a 40 mph zone just before impact.

Rollins has not been convicted of any crime. The charges stem from a collision in August 2025 at Old Moultrie Road and Lewis Point Road, south of downtown St. Augustine, that killed Michelle Alessi, 52, who was turning in a Honda SUV when it was struck on the driver's side.

The charges and bond

Rollins was booked into the St. Johns County Jail on three charges, according to News4JAX's review of the arrest records. Her total bond was set at $210,000.

The case was investigated by FHP's traffic homicide unit, which handles fatal crashes on state and county roads across Florida. Prosecution of felony cases in St. Johns County falls to the State Attorney's Office for the 7th Judicial Circuit.

What troopers say happened

The crash happened late on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, according to FHP's initial account, which put the time at about 11 p.m.; the arrest report describes it as occurring in the early morning hours of Aug. 10. Rollins was driving a black 2017 GMC Sierra 2500 pickup north on Old Moultrie Road, according to the arrest report. Alessi was in a silver Honda SUV heading west on Lewis Point Road and was making a left turn to go south on Old Moultrie Road when the pickup entered the intersection. The front of the truck struck the SUV's driver side door, troopers said at the time.

Alessi was pronounced dead at the scene. FHP's initial report said she was not wearing a seat belt. Both vehicles came to rest on the grass shoulder at the northeast corner of the intersection. The pickup's driver, then described by FHP as a 37-year-old woman, was belted and suffered minor injuries.

The arrest report, as described by News4JAX, lays out the evidence troopers gathered over the following year:

• The pickup's electronic data recorder showed it traveling 83 mph five seconds before the collision and accelerating to 86 mph about 2.5 seconds before impact. The posted limit is 40 mph.
• A St. Johns County Sheriff's Office deputy at the scene detected the odor of alcohol coming from Rollins.
• At HCA Florida Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, troopers noted thick-tongued speech, glazed and watery eyes and the smell of alcohol.
• A blood sample was drawn under a search warrant.
• Florida Department of Law Enforcement DNA analysis linked Rollins to the steering wheel, airbags, seat belt and gear shift of the pickup, with a statistical result that the profile was more than 700 billion times more likely to be attributable to her.

The results of the blood test have not been made public in news coverage of the arrest. The DNA work on the airbags and controls is the kind of evidence prosecutors use to establish who was behind the wheel, a fact that must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in any DUI manslaughter or vehicular homicide trial.

Why the arrest took more than a year

Delayed arrests are common in Florida fatal crash cases that involve suspected impairment. Unlike a routine DUI stop, in which a breath test can be given within hours, a crash with serious injuries often sends the driver to a hospital, where blood is drawn under a warrant and sent to a laboratory for analysis. Traffic homicide investigators then reconstruct the crash, download vehicle data and, as in this case, may wait on DNA testing from FDLE before seeking a warrant. A judge must find probable cause before signing it.

In Rollins' case, the timeline ran 13 and a half months from the crash to the signed warrant on Sept. 25, 2026.

A prior arrest

Rollins was arrested in St. Johns County in April 2023 after an alleged road rage incident on State Road 312, Action News Jax reported. In that case she was charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and misdemeanor reckless driving. According to the arrest affidavit, law enforcement reported that she used her vehicle to force another car off the road and intentionally struck the other vehicle twice, once on the State Road 312 bridge. Investigators documented matching damage on both vehicles, and Rollins denied striking the vehicle when questioned, the affidavit said. News reports on her new arrest did not state how that case was resolved.

Action News Jax also reported that Rollins formerly worked as a dispatcher for St. Johns County Fire Rescue, the county's fire and emergency medical service.

What the charges carry

Under Florida law, DUI manslaughter applies when a driver who is impaired by alcohol or drugs, or who has a blood or breath alcohol level of 0.08 or higher, causes the death of another person. It is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and carries a four-year minimum mandatory prison sentence on conviction, along with permanent revocation of the driver's license, subject to limited hardship review.

Vehicular homicide, a separate charge, requires prosecutors to show the death was caused by operating a vehicle in a reckless manner likely to cause death or great bodily harm. It is also a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years. Prosecutors often file the two charges together in fatal crashes, because the vehicular homicide count does not depend on proving impairment. DUI with property damage is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

What's next

The 7th Circuit State Attorney's Office will decide whether to formally file the charges troopers brought, which in Florida is done by filing an information in circuit court, followed by an arraignment at which Rollins can enter a plea. No court date or defense attorney was identified in the coverage of her arrest. She is presumed innocent, and the blood test results, which have not been publicly reported, are likely to be central to the DUI manslaughter count.