A fugitive who had been sentenced to three life sentences late last month was apprehended Wednesday morning.
The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task force with help from a Lake County sheriff’s deputy captured 36-year-old Zachery Waldo at the historic Lakeside Inn in downtown Mount Dora. Waldo was on trial for a 2019 Christmas Eve wreck that left three members of a Eustis family dead and another critically injured. He was on trial in that case, when he failed to return to the Lake County Courthouse March 14 after a lunch break. Waldo had been free on $148,000 bond when he fled.
Waldo was arrested in August 2020 and charged with three counts of DUI manslaughter and single counts of DUI with serious bodily injury, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, fleeing/eluding with no regard to public safety, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, possession of marijuana with intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The day after he fled, the jury convicted Waldo of three counts of DUI manslaughter and one count of DUI with serious bodily injury by a jury in absentia. The jury found Waldo was intoxicated when he crashed the 2019 Dodge Ram truck he was driving into a Toyota sedan driven by 44-year-old Christopher Smith on Christmas Eve 2019. Both Christopher, his wife, 35-year-old Jessica Smith and their 13-year-old daughter were killed. Their 11-year-old son was severely injured.
On April 20, Judge Heidi Davis sentenced Waldo to natural life in prison on the three counts of DUI manslaughter and 35 years on the DUI with serious bodily injury. The other counts were dropped .
Waldo’s girlfriend, 32-year-old Melinesia Shauntel Jones of Leesburg, was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshal’s Office and sheriff’s deputies on a Lake County warrant on March 27. She was arrested during a traffic stop on Vine Street in Leesburg on a warrant that charges her with principal to failure to appear, accessory after the fact to DUI manslaughter, providing false information to law enforcement in a felony investigation, and accessory after the fact to DUI with serious bodily injury. She posted $13,000 bond on Monday and has been ordered to reside at 1124 Presidential Lane in Apopka. As part of her bond she must wear an GPS ankle monitor.
