Dan Garcia

Special to TCPalm

VERO BEACH — A Sebastian doctor was found guilty Thursday of leaving the scene of a 2016 crash involving death after the county coroner described "large gaping wounds" and "multiple fractures" suffered by the victim.

Nick Kenesky, 33, of Sebastian, was struck April 27, 2016, by an SUV driven by Dr. Angela Shelton, who did not stop to render aid upon striking Kenesky along County Road 512.

A six-woman jury deliberated for 75 minutes before rendering its verdict in the Indian River County courtroom of Circuit Judge Cynthia L. Cox, and several of Shelton's friends cried upon hearing the verdict.

After the jury's decision, Cox ordered Shelton to surrender her passport and increased her bail to $25,000 while allowing her to remain free until her sentencing Nov. 9.

Assistant State Attorney Brian Workman said Shelton faces anywhere from probation to 30 years in prison upon conviction of the first-degree felony.

Previously:Interview with Sebastian doctor involved in fatal hit-and-run crash played at trial

Shelton did not testify in the trial and did not call any witnesses on her behalf. The jury did hear a recorded interview she did with Florida Highway Patrol Cpl. Garrett Shuman after the fatality, in which Shelton told the trooper she did not know she had struck a pedestrian.

But the case turned against Shelton after Dr. Roger Mittleman, chief medical examiner for District 19, told the jury that Kenesky, who was more than 6 feet tall, suffered serious injuries when he was struck by Shelton's Buick Enclave as he walked home from work about 9 p.m.

"There were gaping lacerations, and his bowels were protruding from his lacerations," Mittleman testified, adding Kenesky suffered a skull fracture, tears to his spleen and a broken right leg, among other injuries.

More:Victim's parents sue Sebastian doctor on trial in fatal hit-and-run

In addition, the jury heard from Florida Highway Patrol Master Sgt. Michael Lanam, who told the jury he heard of the crash from a friend whom Shelton contacted. Lanam testified he originally accepted Shelton's account that she struck a sign along C.R. 512 near 104th Avenue.

But Lanam testified he became skeptical that Shelton struck a street sign after he saw severe damage to the SUV in her driveway an hour after the crash.

"The whole front-quarter panel was smashed," Lanam testified. "The mirror was missing, and what appeared to be blood and bone fragments were on the vehicle."

Workman asked the witness: "Did anything look like she had struck a sign?"

"No sir," Lanam replied.

"When did you change your opinion on what happened?" Workman asked Lanam.

"When I saw the vehicle," Lanam replied.

Shelton told Shuman in her tape-recorded interview she slowed briefly after striking an object and noticed her right-side mirror dislodged but continued driving home.

More:Sebastian doctor charged in connection with fatal hit-and-run

In final arguments, Workman told the jury: "She said she hit a sign. But what sign? There are no signs on the roadway."

"To hit a sign, she would have had to leave the road," Workman argued.

"She didn't know what to do. She tapped her brakes," Workman said. "But her headlight was gone. The damage to her vehicle was so obvious that no reasonable person would think she just hit a road sign."

Tom and Kim Kenesky, the parents of Nick Kenesky, declined to comment about the jury's verdict.

"There is still some litigation," Tom Kenesky said, referring to a civil lawsuit the parents have filed against Shelton, a case that is pending in the Indian River County courtroom of Circuit Judge Paul B. Kanarek.

Shelton, the medical director of Ideal Image in Viera in Brevard County, was represented by Melbourne attorneys Kepler Funk and Keith F. Szachacz, who told Cox in a pre-trial hearing that while Shelton was sober, an autopsy revealed Kenesky was under the influence of the opioid fentanyl while he was walking home after work.

Funk told Cox that "Mr. Kenesky's erratic behavior" contributed to his death because in addition to his drug use, he was walking on the opposite side of the street from a sidewalk.

In addition, Funk said Shelton was not drinking or using illegal drugs, did not have a suspended driver's license and did not attempt to clean her vehicle, but parked it on her driveway as usual.

"The state is accusing Dr. Shelton of a hit-and-run, that she struck Mr. Kenesky and purposedly fled," Funk said. "But the last thing a guilty person would do is park their car at their home and call the police."

"When she was told she had hit a person and he was dead, she became hysterical," Funk pointed out.

Funk added: "If Mr. Kenesky had been walking like a normal, sober human being, his death might have been prevented."

But Workman told the jury that any drug use by the victim was not relevant because Shelton claimed she did not think she hit a person when she briefly left the roadway when she turned back to see why her dog was barking in the back seat.