Judge sentences woman over fatal car crash in Greenacres in 2022

A suburban Lake Worth Beach woman was sentenced to three years in prison this week for a 2022 car crash that killed a man near Greenacres.

Elizabeth Owens, 27, learned her fate Monday, July 1, during a hearing before District Judge Jeffrey Gillen at the Palm Beach County Courthouse. She pleaded guilty in March to vehicular homicide in the Dec. 21, 2022, two-car crash that killed 68-year-old Willie Swoope. Her guilty plea came without an offer from the state.

During Monday’s hearing, Gillen ordered Owens’ prison sentence to be replaced with six years of probation. He also suspended her driver’s license for six years. Owens is scheduled to begin serving her prison sentence at the end of the month, court records show. School district records showed she was employed as an ESE Pre-K teacher at Wellington Elementary School at the time of the crash. Her employment ended in May, the school district said.

At the time of her arrest in February 2023, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigators said Owens was driving nearly 90 mph in a 30 mph zone moments before her Volkswagen Tiguan SUV collided with Swoope’s Mercedes-Benz sedan in the fatal crash at St. Andrew’s and Nassau roads, near Palm Beach National Golf & Country Club. Swoope, a Boynton Beach resident, died at the scene. Owens was treated for unspecified injuries and released.

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The judge ordered community service and public speaking as conditions of his probation.

Owens told investigators she was driving east on St. Andrew’s that morning at about the speed limit when another vehicle ran a stop sign and cut her off. But a mathematical reconstruction of the crash showed the Volkswagen’s minimum speed at the time of impact was 79 mph and the Mercedes’ speed was 8 mph, the sheriff’s arrest report said.

Investigators found no mechanical problems with either vehicle that could have contributed to the crash, although the sheriff’s report stated that the roadway was wet and the street and intersection were unlit when the cars collided around 6:50 a.m. that day. Construction was also underway in St. Andrew’s, and an excavator along the road created a “visual obstruction.”

As a condition of Owens’ parole, Gillen ordered her to perform 200 hours of community service, complete a 12-hour driver safety course and give five speeches a year about dangerous driving during her probation, among other things. Owens will also be allowed to use her professional experience to educate fellow inmates while in prison, court records show.

Julius Whigham II is a justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at [email protected] and follow him on Platform X, formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help us support our work: Sign up today.