Tammy Sytch Ordered To Pay $5 Million In DUI Lawsuit Settlement

Tammy "Sunny" Sytch has been ordered to pay $5 million to the estate of Julian Lasseter over the March 2022 traffic collision which resulted in his death and Sytch being sent to prison. Circuit Judge for Volusia County, Florida Mary G. Jolley issued the ruling on April 3. The lawsuit was seeking over $30,000 in damages.

A settlement was reached in February 2025 over the civil lawsuit filed by the estate of Julian Lasseter against Tammy Sytch, her former fiancé James Pente, and Ultimate Motor Cars, LLC. The lawsuit alleged negligence on the part of Sytch, that the Lasseter family had sustained medical and funeral expenses because of Sytch's actions, and that Lasseter's adult daughter "has suffered, and will suffer into the future, the loss of her father's companionship, instruction, guidance, and mental pain and suffering as a result of her father's death." 

Julian Lassetter - a 75-year-old male - passed away after a traffic incident with Tammy Sytch on March 25, 2022 when Sytch rear-ended his vehicle. Sytch's blood alcohol level was over three and a half times above the legal limit and an open bottle of vodka was present in her car at the scene of the collision.

Sytch was sentenced to 17 years in prison and eight years of probation in 2023 over the traffic collision after she pleaded no contest to DUI causing death, driving with a suspended license causing death, four misdemeanour counts of DUI with damage to a person, and two misdemeanour charges of DUI with damage to property. 

Sytch apologised to the Lasseter family at her sentencing and said she wished she could trade places with him. Sytch has since asked for her sentence to be shortened by serving her sentences concurrently but her request was denied in January 2025.

H/T PWInsider