UMATILLA, Fla. — The pickup driver who troopers say fled Umatilla police and ran a red light before a crash that killed a 44-year-old woman early Monday had twice served time in prison for fleeing police and stealing vehicles.
The Florida Highway Patrol identified the driver as Jquarious Sceal, 26, of Eustis. He faces charges of vehicular homicide and fleeing or eluding police causing injury or death. FHP Lt. Tara Crescenzi told Inside Lake on Wednesday that Sceal remained in intensive care and would be booked into the Lake County Jail after his release from the hospital.
Inside Lake discovered a Lake County Jail online booking entry dated Nov. 9 that listed a different name. FHP Trooper Migdalisis Garcia told Inside Lake that Sceal gave that name and that troopers later verified his identity. Crescenzi confirmed that the photo on the booking entry shows Sceal.
Umatilla police said Tuesday that an officer tried to pull over the Nissan Frontier Sceal was driving after seeing it speeding south on State Road 19 early Monday. FHP initially said the officer tried to stop the pickup because it had been reported stolen. Umatilla police said the officer had no evidence at the time that the truck was stolen.
Police said Sceal accelerated after the officer activated his blue lights. The officer began slowing down when it became clear Sceal would not stop, the department said. About six seconds after radioing that he was attempting a traffic stop, the officer reported that the pickup was fleeing and had crashed.
Police said the officer saw the pickup run a red light at Guerrant Street and collide with a vehicle that had a green light. The pickup struck the driver’s side of a Jeep Cherokee headed east on Guerrant Street, FHP said.
Crystalynn Fawn “Crystal” Daniels, 44, of Umatilla, was driving the Jeep and died at the scene. FHP is investigating the crash.
Daniels’ daughter, Rylynn, remembered her mother as “the best momma anyone could ever ask for” in a written statement provided to Inside Lake.
“Our mom was the root of our home. She was our foundation, our comfort, our biggest supporter, and the person who made everything feel okay,” she wrote. “She was more than a mother; she was our best friend and our safe place.”
Rylynn thanked the community for supporting the family and pledged to keep fighting for her mother.
“We will continue to speak your name, share your story, and make sure your life is never defined by the way it ended. You deserve justice, and we will not give up.”
A GoFundMe has been set up to support Daniels’ family. Greg’s Haystax, 526 Umatilla Blvd. in Umatilla, is also collecting donations to help cover the family’s expenses. Donations can be made at the register from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, the restaurant said on Facebook.
Sceal was released from state prison Aug. 18, less than three months before Monday’s crash, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
In December 2025, Sceal pleaded no contest to two counts of fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement and one count each of motor vehicle theft, possession of fentanyl and driving with a suspended license. Lake County court records list a 13-month prison term and 146 days of credit for time served on each of the four felony counts. State corrections records show Sceal was in prison from Jan. 8 to Aug. 18, 2026.
The case stemmed from two attempted traffic stops on July 30, 2025. Eustis police said Sceal sped away from officers both times in a Lexus that had been reported stolen the previous day. Officers later found the car abandoned on Reserve Drive in Tavares and arrested Sceal near a canal off Banning Beach Road. He told police he drove away both times because he didn’t have a valid license, according to the arrest affidavit.
Sceal had been out of prison for about six weeks when he was arrested in the Lexus case. He was in state prison from March 23, 2023, to June 15, 2025, after receiving three-year terms for burglary and grand theft of a firearm in one case and a separate weapons offense in another, according to Florida Department of Corrections records.
Sceal’s first prison stint lasted from Sept. 28, 2020, to March 2, 2022. Corrections records list a three-year term on four counts from two Lake County cases, all imposed on June 4, 2020. Three counts were for burglary, motor vehicle theft and fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement in a February 2019 case. The fourth was for motor vehicle theft in a separate case.
In the February 2019 case, an Eustis police officer saw a Hyundai Sonata that had been reported stolen run a stop sign and tried to pull it over. The driver sped away, according to the arrest affidavit. Hyundai’s tracking service remotely disabled the car at police request. After the car stopped, officers identified Sceal as the driver and arrested him.
The separate theft case involved a pickup that fled from a Eustis police officer and crashed near Doane Avenue and Schultz Street in December 2018. The driver ran from the crash, and the officer could not provide a description. A detective wrote that state analysts later reported a match to Sceal in a mixed DNA profile from a cellphone found inside the truck.
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