Authorities on Wednesday identified the woman accused in a carjacking that ended in a dramatic crash a day earlier, saying police witnessed her smoking crack cocaine downtown hours before she pulled a former Marine from his BMW and led deputies on an 80 mph chase throughout Gainesville.
Jessica Marie Hord, 42, of Gainesville had been released from prison Saturday after serving less than a year behind bars in an unrelated felony drug and property crime conviction.
In that case, she was caught trying to break into a Cadillac at a park by smashing a window with a rock and said she was trying to "hide from the devil," court records said. She also had a small amount of Molly on her, which she told police she smoked.
She told Circuit Judge Judge Phillip Pena during sentencing in that case that she was taking Prozac, Remeron and Vistaril, all powerful prescription medications used to treat serious depression and anxiety.
In the latest incident, Hord was booked into the county jail late Tuesday, facing felony carjacking and misdemeanor drug charges.
Hord could not be contacted to discuss what happened. The sheriff's office has a policy prohibiting reporters from interviewing jail inmates without permission in writing from a defense lawyer and a senior jail official. No public defender has been appointed yet in Hord's case. In her previous criminal cases, she has said she could never afford to hire a private attorney.
Court records revealed new details about how the situation unfolded over hours Tuesday.
Two Gainesville police officers said they spotted Hord near the downtown county courthouse Tuesday morning. Watching through binoculars from a patrol cruiser, one officer said he saw Hord smoke narcotics using a clear pipe in a shaded area and then head down Main Street.
When the officers confronted her, she admitted smoking crack and had a small bag of marijuana, police said. Police issued Hord a misdemeanor citation but did not arrest her.
Four hours later, about one block away from her encounter with police, Hord approached a former U.S. Marine who was fixing his BMW door, wrapped her arms around him and threw him to the ground, the sheriff’s office said. Hord is 5-foot-10 and 240 pounds, according to jail records. The ex-Marine told investigators he was staying at a local shelter for homeless veterans.
Hord drove the BMW south on Main Street, where a sheriff’s deputy noticed her driving erratically. The deputy said she hit 80 mph after she turned onto busy Southeast Williston Road, cutting through traffic, ignoring his lights and sirens.
A nearby driver, Derek Lee Humphrey, said the BMW was driving head-on toward his vehicle outside the Oak Hammock retirement community, then it swerved through the intersection. Humphrey said both front tires were flat, causing the rubber to smack against the stolen BMW’s wheel wells.
"It looked like she was trying to get to open space," Humphrey said in an interview Wednesday.
The chase ended when Hord crashed into a Federal Express semi-truck on the northbound ramp of Interstate 75.
In an eerily similar case, Hord was convicted of stealing a car in December 2021 in Gainesville. She served 264 days in prison until November 2022 in the case. Police said she got behind the wheel of a vehicle when the owner stepped away from his running car while throwing trash in a dumpster. She crashed the vehicle in a ditch.