Former WWE star Tammy Sytch, also known by the ring name Sunny, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison plus eight years of probation for her involvement in a DUI car crash that killed a 75-year-old man in Florida last year.
Assistant State Attorney Ashley Terwilleger confirmed the news to EW on Monday but declined to comment further. Attorneys for Sytch, 50, didn’t immediately respond to EW’s request for comment.
Sytch’s sentencing came three months after she pleaded no contest to DUI manslaughter, driving while license suspended, four counts of DUI with damage to person, and two counts of DUI with damage to property, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
In March 2022, Sytch crashed her car into another vehicle driven by Julian Fran Lasseter, who was stopped at a red light in Ormond Beach. Lasseter’s vehicle was pushed into another, and he died from his injuries. Sytch’s blood-alcohol content at the time of the crash was between 0.32 and 0.36, four times the legal limit, according to the News-Journal. She reportedly admitted to drinking vodka, and an open bottle of vodka was found in her car.
YouTube
Sytch was arrested in May 2022, four months after she was released from an eight-month prison sentence for a previous DUI. Terwilleger and her fellow prosecutors sought the maximum penalty of 26 years in prison for Sytch, and called her a “danger to society” for her repeated offenses.
In court Monday, Sytch asked Judge Karen Foxman for another chance, pointing to all the work she’s done to bring others happiness through her time in the WWE. “I’ve made terminally ill children’s wishes come true through the Make-a-Wish foundation,” she said, per to the News-Journal. “I have done something horrible but I am so much more than the worse that I have done.” She also apologized to Lasseter’s family, adding, “If I could bring Mr. Lasseter back and take his place I would in an instant.”
Sytch received credit for the 566 days she has served in the Volusia County Branch Jail, according to WKMG-TV in Orlando.
A New Jersey native, Sytch joined the WWE in 1995 and is widely considered to be the first WWE Diva. She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
Related content: