Former Polk deputy skips trial in fatal Courtney Campbell DUI crash
TAMPA — A former sheriff's deputy accused of driving drunk and causing a crash that killed two men on the Courtney Campbell Causeway in 2022 is now a wanted man.
Joshua Kyle Roelofs failed to show up for what was scheduled to be the first day of his trial Monday morning in Tampa. He was expected to enter a guilty plea to DUI manslaughter and other charges.
Instead, for almost an hour, court officials waited for the defendant. When he still did not appear after bailiffs called his name, Hillsborough Circuit Judge G. Gregory Green issued a warrant for his arrest.
Roelofs, 35, had been out of jail on $19,000 bail since his arrest in May 2022. Tampa police determined he was driving an orange Nissan GTR at more than 100 mph early the morning of April 13, 2022, on the causeway, a bridge that runs across Old Tampa Bay between Clearwater and Tampa. The Nissan slammed into the back of a Kia Sorrento, which flipped over and came to rest on its side.
Kris Koroly and Ricky Gongora, roommates who worked together at Salt Cracker Fish Camp in Clearwater, were both thrown from the Kia and killed. The driver, William Camacho, and another passenger, Jessica Perez, were both seriously injured.
Koroly and Gongora, who were both 44 when they died, had out-of-state family members listening in to Monday's court proceedings by videoconference. They'd eagerly anticipated that three years of legal proceedings might come to an end.
'My mind is racing right now,' Gongora's sister, Victoria Negrete, said after Roelofs didn't show. 'We just want justice. And this coward, the whole time, did not take accountability. And now he didn't even show up.'
'I knew this guy was a flight risk,' said Koroly's sister, Rachel Pell. 'I am in shock. I am just in complete shock.'
Roelofs' blood alcohol content was pegged at 0.69 about five hours after the collision. The limit at which state law presumes impairment is 0.08. Prosecutors presented paperwork showing that Roelofs visited two bars in St. Petersburg in the hours before the crash.
Roelofs, of Mulberry, attended prior court hearings in his case. State corporation records indicate that he owns a solar energy business. From 2010 to 2015, he worked as a Polk County sheriff's deputy. He was fired after he was caught repeatedly filing inaccurate timecards to receive extra pay, sheriff's officials previously told the Tampa Bay Times.
In recent weeks, his attorneys had unsuccessfully argued for a judge to suppress some of the evidence in the case.
It had been anticipated that Roelofs would plead guilty and leave his sentence for a judge to determine rather than go to trial. Now, though, his case's outcome is uncertain.
If he is found and arrested, he will likely be jailed without bail until his case is resolved. He will also need to obtain a new lawyer. After he failed to appear Monday, his attorneys, Deborah Barra and Glen Lansky, withdrew from representing him further.
Anyone with information regarding Roelofs' whereabouts can contact the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office at 813-247-8200.
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