{"id":61892,"date":"2026-01-29T18:24:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=61892"},"modified":"2026-01-29T18:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:24:52","slug":"lakeland-woman-sentenced-in-fatal-bartow-road-hit-and-run-plea-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/01\/29\/lakeland-woman-sentenced-in-fatal-bartow-road-hit-and-run-plea-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Woman Sentenced in Fatal Bartow Road Hit-and-Run Plea Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"b7aba2\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #b7aba2;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"517\" height=\"565\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 517px) 100vw, 517px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/623790733_122197814972549899_7563767009265940178_n.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61893 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/623790733_122197814972549899_7563767009265940178_n.webp 517w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/623790733_122197814972549899_7563767009265940178_n-275x300.webp 275w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Lakeland woman involved in a deadly hit-and-run crash has been sentenced following a plea agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cassidy Mullis, 23, received:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 4 years mandatory minimum in Florida State Prison<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 120 months (10 years) probation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 3-year driver\u2019s license suspension<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The charges stem from a hit-and-run crash that occurred shortly before 2 a.m. on June 25, 2024, in the 3000 block of Bartow Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lakeland Police officers located a bicyclist, 42-year-old Paul Ruis of Lakeland, deceased at the scene. Investigators later identified a gray 2018 Nissan Sentra as the suspect vehicle, which was found hours later at a residence in Winter Haven with damage consistent with the crash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Police reported that Mullis admitted she was driving at the time of the crash. Investigators determined she knew or should have known the collision resulted in serious injury or death and failed to stop and remain on scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mullis was charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death, a first-degree felony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Lakeland woman involved in a deadly hit-and-run crash has been sentenced following a plea agreement. Cassidy Mullis, 23, received: \u2022 4 years mandatory minimum in Florida State Prison \u2022&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDFcLzYyMzc5MDczM18xMjIxOTc4MTQ5NzI1NDk4OTlfNzU2Mzc2NzAwOTI2NTk0MDE3OF9uLndlYnA_Zml0PTUxNyUyQzU2NSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ikxha2VsYW5kIFdvbWFuIFNlbnRlbmNlZCBpbiBGYXRhbCBCYXJ0b3cgUm9hZCBIaXQtYW5kLVJ1biBQbGVhIERlYWwiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.PP1pH_qry6gu4sHp0ezPvNJLcXeLsrA_e3EgExds1C0MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":61893,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/623790733_122197814972549899_7563767009265940178_n.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[13405],"class_list":["post-61892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-lakeland-woman-sentenced-in-fatal-bartow-road-hit-and-run-plea-deal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61894,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61892\/revisions\/61894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}