A woman who had been released from a Baker Act detention was arrested and charged Wednesday in the death of a Volusia County beach toll booth taker during a crash in Daytona Beach Shores.
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Deanna Harrell, 35, of Ormond Beach was placed into custody for warrants issued on vehicular homicide and DUI manslaughter for the Monday death of Tammie Jo Baker, 62, of Daytona Beach.
Media reports early Wednesday had said she had been released from Baker Act detention, which allows law enforcement to involuntarily commit people to a mental health facility for up to 72 hours, but not immediately arrested. The sheriff’s office posted an image of her arrest soon after.
Harrell had been driving a truck at what Sheriff Mike Chitwood initially stated was about 40 mph down the Dunlawton Avenue beach approach. During a press conference Tuesday, Chitwood played surveillance video showing the impact and the truck plowing through the tiny structure and then continuing out across the beach and in the shallow waves the Atlantic before it got stuck.
“Nobody’s going to survive that,” Chitwood said.
Baker, who would have turned 63 on this month, had only entered the toll booth moments before the 12:38 p.m. crash.
“Thirty-five seconds after our victim enters the booth, she’s dead, and our job is to build a case to make sure that Tommy Joe and her family get justice,” he said.
Update from @SheriffChitwood on the traffic homicide investigation into Monday’s beach toll crash:
Tammie Jo Baker deserves justice. The Volusia Sheriff’s Office traffic homicide investigation into the crash that took her life yesterday has to be thorough and professional. Today… pic.twitter.com/641FGyr38x
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— Volusia Sheriff (@VolusiaSheriff) June 2, 2026
Chitwood said investigators have built a timeline of Harrell’s day, which began with her going to work at a bike rental shop in Daytona Beach Shores. She was sent home before 11 a.m. because of inclement weather. At 11:08 a.m. she arrived to a local bar where she had two rum and Cokes and a shot somebody had bought for her, according to receipts.
“When she’s questioned by detectives yesterday, or our THI, traffic homicide investigators, she admits to having a vodka and Gatorade mixture, where she emptied some of the Gatorade out and filled the bottle with vodka, and that’s somewhere prior to the crash,” he said.
At 12:29 p.m., the first of at least two 911 calls comes in in describing a “drunk driver” who had been swerving and heading the wrong way and striking a mailbox and trash can on Peninsula Drive headed for Dunlawton Avenue.
Body cam footage shows a sheriff’s deputy’s initial interaction with Harrell after the crash as she was sitting on the beach with lifeguards attending to her, with the truck stuck in the sand nearby. When asked by one whether she had been taking any medication, she responds, “no.”
She spells her last name for the deputy, and when she is handcuffed shortly after, she questioned deputies, saying, “Are you serious?” and “Could you please not record this?”
Chitwood said that after deputies explained why she was being arrested, she threatened self-harm and was then placed in Baker Act custody.
She had no real criminal history, he said, but she did in 2025 have a risk protection order on her related to her not being allowed to possess firearms, Chitwood said.
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