DUI suspect loses smile as charges escalate

Angenette Marie Welk in a mugshot for her DUI charge (left) and for her manslaughter charge (right)

That wiped the smile off her face.

A Florida woman, who flashed a wide grin in her mugshot for a DUI arrest following a fatal crash, was appropriately somber in her new mugshot Saturday — this time for manslaughter charges.

Angenette Marie Welk, 44, initially was charged with DUI and serious bodily injury for allegedly crashing her car while drunk on May 10 — rear-ending a Hyundai Elantra and sending it hurtling toward the tractor-trailer in front of it.

The woman in the Hyundai, Sandra Clarkston — who had just celebrated her 60th birthday — died at Ocala Regional Medical Center four days later from injuries sustained in the crash.

On Saturday, Welk was booked again for a far more serious charge of DUI manslaughter,the Ocala Star Banner reported.

After the crash, Welk told the trooper at the scene she lost control of her car because she dropped her cellphone while driving. But the trooper noticed her breath reeked of alcohol and her eyes were glossy. She also failed to pass a field sobriety test and her blood alcohol was more than twice the legal limit of .08.

Clarkston’s children had been upset and hurt by Welk’s first mugshot, which showed the woman who allegedly caused the car crash that killed their mother grinning from ear to ear.

On Saturday, they said they were happy Welk had been re-arrested — but not pleased that she was let out of Marion County Jail on $30,000 bond.

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