July 30, 2025
PRESS RELEASE
State Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden announced that on July 30, 2025, the Honorable Amy Brodersen sentenced 40-year-old Christina Lynn Chenault to 15 years state prison for Fleeing or Attempting to Elude a Law Enforcement Officer, three counts of Child Neglect, Leaving the Scene of a Crash with Injuries, Driving While License Suspended, and Reckless Driving. Judge Brodersen also revoked the defendant’s driver’s license for the statutory maximum penalty of 5 years.
On January 5, 2025, the defendant, who was driving with a suspended driver’s license, struck a teenager on his bicycle at the intersection of Cross and Tarragona Streets. The teenager sustained non-life-threatening injuries. When officers arrived, the defendant got in her car and sped through the surrounding residential area, refusing to stop for PPD officers in marked vehicles with activated lights and sirens. She then drove onto the interstate at high rates of speed, endangering other motorists. Upon encountering a blockade set up by the Florida Highway Patrol while driving westbound on I-10, she performed a U-turn on the grassy median and attempted to continue on eastbound I-10 when officers successfully executed a PIT maneuver on her vehicle. Once the vehicle was immobilized, officers discovered that the defendant was driving in this reckless and dangerous manner with three young children in her car. The children were unharmed.
The defendant committed these crimes while serving a probation sentence of out Okaloosa County. In April of 2023, the defendant was arrested and charged with Fleeing or Attempting to Elude a Law Enforcement Officer, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Possession of Marijuana, Driving While License Suspended, and Driving Under the Influence with a Minor in the Vehicle. In June of 2023, she pled to those crimes and was sentenced to 24 months of probation. Having now been sentenced in Escambia County, she will be transported to Okaloosa County to resolve the pending violation of probation for her 2023 case.
The case was investigated by the Pensacola Police Department. Assistant State Attorney Erin Ambrose prosecuted the case. For further information, please contact the State Attorney’s Office at 850-595-4200.
