Former WWF star arrested on DUI charges after a Florida senior citizen’s death
Tammy Lynn Sytch, better known as WWE Hall of Fame star “Sunny,” bonded out of Volusia County jail Saturday after her arrest on criminal charges related to a crash that killed a 75-year-old man.
The list of charges hanging over the Ormond Beach woman: one count of DUI causing the death of a human, one count of causing death or serious injury while driving on a suspended or revoked license, three counts of DUI with damage to property, and four counts of DUI with damage to a person.
Ormond Beach police arrested the 49-year-old Sytch on Friday, and her bond was set at $227,500. She’s scheduled to formally hear the charges in court on May 31.
Sytch and James Pente already have been named in a wrongful death lawsuit from the estate of Julian Lasseter, another Ormond Beach resident. The lawsuit says Lasseter was driving south on Yonge Street near the Grenada Boulevard intersection on March 25 when Sytch, driving Pente’s car, rear-ended him, causing injuries that led to his death.
Sunny the star, Sytch the defendant
Now unemployed, according to the arrest affidavit, Sytch was a superstar in the 1990s wrestling entertainment world as an arrogant manager and valet, a beautiful heel to accompany a promotion’s villains.
Sytch’s WWE Hall of Fame biography says she was about to head for the University of Miami on a full academic ride when she was persuaded by wrestler Chris Candido to follow him to Tennessee, where she went to college while starting with Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1995. She signed with the then-WWF in 1995, had a few years of ubiquitous stardom, then was jettisoned in the early 2000s. She’d later work with Extreme Championship Wrestling and WCW.
“Sytch will forever be remembered as the person who redefined the role of women in WWE,” the WWE Hall of Fame bio says. “She wasn’t just a brainless bikini model or a vivacious valet at ringside. She was a pinup, a fast-talking manager and could throw down when she needed to. In short, she was sexy, smart and powerful.”
After a career as a pretend villain, Sytch’s moved on to the role of defendant. In reporting on Sytch’s January arrest in New Jersey on charges of terroristic threats and unlawful possession of a firearm, WrestlingNews.co counted at least six DUI arrests. That was before the site reported another DUI arrest in New Jersey in February.
Online New Jersey court records say on June 8 last year, Sytch was sentenced to 331 days in jail and two years’ probation for resisting arrest/eluding after instruction to stop on July 13, 2020. Online records also say there was a violation of probation hearing scheduled three weeks ago, but it wasn’t held because Sytch didn’t appear.
