JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 More than a year after 23-year-old Gavin Carter was killed while trying to help a driver on I-10 in Jacksonville, the man accused in his death has pleaded guilty in court.<\/p>\n
On August 21, 25-year-old Dante Lawrence entered a guilty plea to leaving the scene of a fatal crash without rendering aid.<\/p>\n
Carter\u2019s family said they\u2019ve waited over a year for accountability \u2014 and while the guilty plea brings some relief, they\u2019re now hoping the upcoming sentencing will reflect the depth of their loss.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was nice to hear, but not in the way he said it,\u201d said Carter\u2019s grandmother, Cynthia Carter Ross, speaking about Lawrence\u2019s plea.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like a convenience. I\u2019m guilty because they know they can prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n The crash occurred in 2024 along Interstate 10 near McDuff Avenue. Florida Highway Patrol investigators say Carter stopped to help a driver who had crashed into a barrier and overturned. While helping at the scene, he was struck and killed by another vehicle.<\/p>\n Authorities later identified the driver as Dante Lawrence, who fled the scene on foot. It took nearly ten months for investigators to arrest him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had 287 days to come forward,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if he was in shock or scared the night it happened\u2026 287 days to say, \u2018I am so sorry for what I did.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Cynthia Carter Ross says her only comfort over the last year has been a memorial bench placed in her yard in memory of Gavin.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI sit here when I wanna talk to Gavin,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt says, \u2018Come sit with me. It\u2019ll be all right. I\u2019m not gone. I\u2019m in your heart.\u2019 In memory of my brother and my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n The family said they plan to attend Lawrence\u2019s sentencing date, which is scheduled for September 29.<\/p>\n Gavin\u2019s mother, Dawn Carter, said she\u2019s deeply concerned about the possibility of a lenient sentence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s gonna break my heart if this man gets 21 months in jail,\u201d she told Action News Jax.<\/p>\n As\u00a0Lawrence awaits sentencing, the Carter family hopes the court holds him fully accountable. They also hope Gavin\u2019s story serves as a reminder of both the courage it takes to help others \u2014 and the tragedy that can follow.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 More than a year after 23-year-old Gavin Carter was killed while trying to help a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":206775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[12189,15619,5229,35132,113710,113708,113711,3188,723,10598,113707,42419,46081,7310,9067,425,113709,21782,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-206774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-action_news_jack","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-carter","12":"tag-cynthia_carter_ross","13":"tag-dante_lawrence","14":"tag-dawn_carter","15":"tag-fl","16":"tag-florida","17":"tag-gavin","18":"tag-gavin_carter","19":"tag-govino","20":"tag-i-10","21":"tag-jacksonville","22":"tag-lawrence","23":"tag-local","24":"tag-mcduff_avenue","25":"tag-nicholas_brooks","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115161205588540087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}