Woman charged with manslaughter and drunk driving with injury after crashing head-on into utility pole

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Ronesha Nichole Butler, 31, was arrested yesterday and charged with vehicular manslaughter, DUI manslaughter, DUI causing personal injury and driving without a license in an incident that occurred on Aug. 30 that left one of her passengers dead and the other injured.

On August 30 at around 6 p.m., Butler was reportedly driving a 2020 Toyota Camry south on NE Waldo Road, approaching NW 53rd Avenue, when the car crashed head-on into a utility pole at a high rate of speed. Charles Brautcheck, who was in the driver's back seat, was taken to the hospital with a trauma alert and later succumbed to his injuries. The passenger, who suffered a broken collarbone, reportedly said Butler had been drinking; the passenger said he argued with Butler and she became angry and said she was going to “kill her.” According to the passenger, the car crashed into the utility pole moments later.

A Gainesville Police Department officer who responded to the call reported finding a Four Loko brand alcoholic beverage in the car and that the vehicle smelled strongly of alcohol.

In hospital, Butler was said to have been “screaming and incoherent”; a blood sample showed a blood alcohol content of 0.188 g/100 ml, which corresponds to a breath alcohol concentration of 0.172 g/210 l and is therefore more than twice the legal limit.

Another witness said the vehicle was being driven recklessly before the accident and he saw the driver lose control and drive off the road. He said the vehicle slowed down and then the driver regained control and overtook him at a high rate of speed.

Butler's license was suspended in November 2023 and her license was canceled on July 16, 2024.

Butler, whose address is listed as GRACE Marketplace, has a juvenile delinquency history between 2009 and 2013 and two misdemeanor convictions as an adult (one of them violent). Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered her held without bail pending a hearing on a prosecutor's motion to hold her without bail pending trial.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are from the arrest report and/or court records and are merely allegations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.