October 8, 2024 • 22 mins
Devin Perkins was driving down the road with a carful of friends when Thomas Petry purposefully swerved into oncoming traffic to hit his vehicle, causing a fatal accident. Three of his friends died in the crash and Devin was severely injured. The State Attorney decided to file charges against Devin Perkins because he was speeding at the time of the crash. He now faces life in prison. Is Devin Perkins a victim or a criminal? His mother helps us unravel this shocking story of nuance crashing into the Justice System.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now. There's been a story that we've been discussing
on the show that's perplexing to me. It's a little
insane and there's real, genuine people at the center of this.
So we've done enough of reading through some of the
court documents talking about the story. Is now it's time
to go to the people involved directly in this. And
we have Victoria Maxwell with us. Victoria, can you hear us?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Okay, I can hear. You're just fine, thank you, excellent?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
All right, So your son is Devin Perkins, correct.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
That is correct?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
All right. I want to ask you a little bit
about Devin Perkins here, and we want to talk about
what's going on with him currently. He's a young guy.
What is he twenty two years old at.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The time of the crash, at the time.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Of the craft.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Okay, so he's twenty four now. He was twenty two
years old when this crash happened. Bring me back to
the night of the crash, because I know you thought
your son almost died. I mean, he was very hurt
and he got injured in this accident. So bring me
back to that night.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, it's a miracle that Devin survived.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
He arrived at Halifax, unresponsive, not breathing. We I identified
him the following afternoon as a John Doe is how
I found him.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
But it was a horrific accident.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
What happened to him physically? Would he break bones? Did he?
Speaker 4 (01:18):
He had three broken ribs, He had an enlarged spleen.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
He had a punctured lung.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
He had a broken pelvis that required surgery and plates
pelvis areas. Is not an air of the body that
easily heals. I mean he'll never be the same given
given the impact to the windshields, face for lacerations, cuts
all over his neck, his face, his hands.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Jesus, so he was all beat up after this accident.
It was he lost some of his friends as well
in this accident. Can we talk about them real quick
and just who was Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's that's actually stating at lately.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
He lost the love of his life, Alexander Dulan also
known on social media networks his Alley Spice, his best
friend Kyle Moser, longtime best friend, and Ava Felaman.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
That was the first night that Ava had met.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
The rest of the party in the car.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It was a good friend of Ali's.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Okay, and were they all with your son in this Infinity.
They were in the Infinity vehicle.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Correct, Okay, at a twenty fourteen Infinity sedan.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
All right. So he they're driving along in this Infinity vehicle.
They had been hanging out together. It's the early hours
of the morning, dark outside. They're driving down a very
small it's a two lane road. Correct, No, No, it is.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
It is a four lane plided highway with a large
grass center median.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
It's State Road forty four.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's a road that actually Devin lives off of.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
He from the time he has received his license, he's
he's quite familiar with State Road forty four.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Okay. So he's headed home. He's on State Road forty four.
And now there are how many vehicles were involved in
this late night, early morning accident.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
There was a total of four vehicles.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
All right. So you got the Infinity, you got this
Toyota truck that we're going to talk about in a minute.
What were the other two vehicles that were involved.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
The third vehicle was a Prius. It was driven by
and I can't Tom DeMarco. He was a witness within
the trio of Devon, Okay, and his car was totaled.
The fourth vehicle managed to get through the incident with
minor damage.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I'm not quite sure how extensive that that last car was.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
All right, Did anybody in the prius die? No, sir, Okay,
So the deaths we're all in the infinity. Was there
anybody else in this Toyota truck?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yes, Joanna Dillon was the passenger. She is the owner
of the Toyota truck.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, did she die or did she survive?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
She survived?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Okay, So the only people who died were your son's
friends in the vehicle with him.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Okay, that's important to know, I think. Okay, so now
your son's driving down the street. Let's talk about the
accident itself, and then we'll talk about sort of what
I think is insane that's happening to your son in court.
But Victoria, your son Devin is driving in the infinity.
He's got his three friends in the car with him
that ended up dying because of this accident. A vehicle
is in his lane, a vehicle swerves into oncoming traffic
(04:31):
and crashes into them at a high rate of speed.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
And I think that we were kind of under the
impression that it was a two lane. Therefore, yeah, but
now it's very clear he went over a median.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
If I could just back you up for just a moment,
because this story actually starts at two three am where
the wrong way driver in the Toyota truck. There was
a nine to one to one call reporting the accident.
This is a clear nine miles east of where this
head on collision occurred. Okay, that was the first of
several calls to nine to one one. The second call
(05:07):
that came in, the driver was able to avoid them.
The second call that came in, I believe it it
was two oh seven. This call had indicated that the
truck now had no headlights.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Okay, so we got a guy who's driving into oncoming
traffic trying to crash in. The second call says, now
he's even turned off his headlights. This person's driving this
toilette track and then eventually he gets further down the
road and it seems clear that he's intentionally crashing into
the vehicle that happened to be driven by your son.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
There's no avoiding it.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
The area is desolate, it is not surrounded by any lights,
any businesses. It's just past the Belusha County fairgrounds. There's
no way to see an oncoming truck heading in front
of you.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So now it seems pretty clear to me what we
have going on. We have this late night accident. We
have somebody who is intentionally driving into oncoming traffic. They
crashed into your son's Infinity vehicle. His three friends unfortunately
die in the car with him. He's very beat up
and battered after this accident. He's a victim. He's a victim.
And all this to everybody who's looking at this story. Obviously,
(06:19):
he goes to the hospital and then at some point
after this you must hear, hey, they're considering charging him
with a crime. He's been moved from victim status. Now
I was charged with the crime. How did that work out? Okay?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, if I could just beck up for just a moment.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Right from the beginning, we all know if some of
the allegations that State Attorney, some of the factors that
they had sort of compiled to charge Devon was the
fact that there was alcohol in the system in THHC.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Blood toxicology was done in the ICU.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
If there was warrant in merit for a DUI or
affiliated to that, it would have he would have been
arrested at that point and all accounts, and just to.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Be clear that the toxicology report said point oh two
or something around that way under the legal limit.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Right, correct, Okay, correct, So he's.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Not impaired with alcohol, he's well under the legal limit,
and that doesn't seem to be an issue. And then
then you talked about the THHC in a system which
was like a minute amount is best I could tell. Correct,
That didn't seem to be having any impact on his
ability to drive safely in that moment. So it comes
down to the fact that they said your son was
(07:33):
speeding in this car. That was the reasoning why a
prosecutor decided to take somebody who was a victim and
maybe send them the jail for the rest of their life.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yes, they they that the culmination was a factor.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
There have been concerns with the investigation and the handling
of this case. And one of the things that really
is not aware is Fellerman and Stern Bully. Ava's uncle
actually had such concerns that he was on route and
in the state of Florida the following Monday morning, September twelfth,
(08:13):
doing his own sort of investigation I mean.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It was his niece, of course that perished.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
I would defer you to some of the other parents
to maybe ask them about their thoughts of how it
was handled. No, everyone was not aware. We were not
aware Devin was a victim. We identified the wrong way driver.
It was identified by Kyle's sister and sister in law.
I believe just the following day.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Huh And okay, Now it's where there's a lot of
questions here, because yes, sir, I don't see anything that
would lead me to believe a prosecutor would say this
is worth going with. Did any of the victims who died,
Did any of those families push against your son Devin
Hurkins and say, hey, he may be a victim too,
(09:02):
Maybe he was driving this car, but he you know,
he should be prosecuted.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
With anybody calling for that, Nobody was vocal in any
fashion in a public forum, with the exception of Greg Fellerman,
which on it was August ninth, was a hearing.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
A hearing that was that he was able to chime
in on a zoom call. I will tell you the
morning of my arrest.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Who is this person that you're talking about?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
This is this is Ava Fellerman's dad, Greg Fellerman.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Okay, all right.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
However, the morning of my son's arrest, I was notified
by Ed Sarambouli, of who actually had civil ties with Devin.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
He told me of the rest before I was even
aware of it.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Okay. So there was one of the family members who
made some sort of mention about charges for your son, correct,
which would have put a little fire under the prosecutor.
The prosecute looks at this and sees that the only
thing you really have is the speeding issue and the reports.
(10:08):
A lot of the reports I saw said that your son,
Devin Perkins was driving one hundred miles an hour, But
it looks like in the court documents that they determined
he was not going that fast at the time of
the crash. It was closer to eighty something.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Right. They have the EDR records, and they do have
and understand that. Please, last week, this whole thing's overwhelming,
So I do invite anyone to fact checked me.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
They do have the last five seconds of his EDR.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
They do indicate I believe it was at five seconds
that he was one hundred miles per hour. They went
down in increments at a half second increments, And I
will tell you this, one thing that I know for
certain is that Devin braked and he did a hard steer.
So maya interpretation of that is he had just recognized
the car coming at him and tried to veer away from.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Unfortunately, when you compare the size.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Of an Infinity Q fifty to a four door or
four cab Toyota to coma truck, there's quite a difference
in the frame mechanisms, there's quite a difference in the
size of the automobiles.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
I think it's kind of a parent considering the fatalities
and the fact that the both guys survived, both of them.
There was another person in the Toyota, he said, and
both of them survived.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Then I brought this up when we talked about.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
It earlier, and forgive me if this was already mentioned,
but had he been going the speed limit or maybe
just five to ten miles over, it still would have
been just as terrible as an accident.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
And where.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Where it lies that he becomes at fault is wild
to me, because that pairs have not been driving the
wrong way, then none of this would have happened.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Right, That's the most person thing. If there was never
If this guy wasn't trying to run into people, nobody's dead,
everybody gets back.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Everybody's if we can eliminate that Toyota truck driving eastbound
in the west boundlanes of State Road forty four.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
And it's not like he went across the street.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Again, this is a four lane divided highway with a
large centagrass medium. We can with certainty say that if
Tom Petrie was not on that road, this would have
never happened. Actually, for all SAIDs of purposes, if Tom
Petrie hadn't been on that road, none of our families
would have lost our children. Because the loss of my
(12:27):
son to Valusia County Corrections and potentially serving thirty years
to life, this is a direct result of Tom Petrie's actions.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, so now we've got your son. Has he been
in jail this whole time? Is he in jail right now?
Speaker 4 (12:41):
No, sir, he was out on bond when the verdict
of guilty came in for the charges of vehicula homicide
and reckless driving. They did revoke his bond last Monday,
and they have him over at Lusia County Corrections.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, okay, this is first defense.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Sorry, this yes question.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
See, that's also very interesting to me because for them
to posit a book so intensely at him, especially without
any priors, it's like, what example are you trying to
make here?
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, to that point, if he had a whole bunch
of DUI's and driving aggressively and getting into a whole
bunch of acts. If you had a whole bunch of
stuff like that, we go, Okay, that makes a little sense,
but it just doesn't add up. And Big House on
YouTube says a jury won't found him find him guilty.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
They did.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
They did find him guilty, but.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
With given the only like the yes or no black
and white. From what I understand of being on a jury,
it's like you're only asked these specific questions.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
They had no other. Yeah, they wred them down a
path where they had to find him guilty. Kind of yes, sar.
Can we talk real quick about they offered a deal?
You're just going to bring that up. Okay, what was
the deal that they offered Devin?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
On paper?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
On paper? Officially they offered him a ten to twenty Okay, yeah,
what about not on paper? Potentially a.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Potentially a lesser sentence if he was to take responsibility
for one of the children in the car, and my
son is stan fast in his conviction that he was
responsible for every person in his car. He was just
as responsible for Ali as he was for Kyle, as
he was for Ava. He took the responsibility as a
(14:35):
designated driver that evening and he said, no, honestly his
exact words, I'm going to take thirty on the chin
before I plead to something that I'm not responsible for.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
So the prosecutor comes at you and says, if he
takes responsibility for one of these people's desks and he
does not find himself to be respected.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Me, let me just clarify, because I don't want my
hand to be slapped. That was that was that was
in ear That was in backdoor conversations. I don't think
that was formally presented at all. When we got back
in front of Judge Nichols, State made sure to express
very very loudly, we want to make sure that people
(15:16):
are aware.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
We offered a ten to twenty okay, So they pushed
back on the other deal.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
What what would be the advantage or I don't know
if advantage is the right word. What did it mean
to take responsibility for one of the people in the
car and not all three like the parent.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
One count of vehicular manslaughter.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I that's coming from Herestay okay, that's that's what I
heard with my ears.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I did not see the paperwork.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
I was not told by prosecutor what it means from
my son if he were to accept to plea. He's
accepting a plea of three felonies. Four felonies yeh, three
of the hicula homicide and one any charge of reckless
driving the serious bodily injury.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
But what I mean now he's been found guilty of
all of these things and has and now what's you
facing life potentially correct?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Yes, sir, is there an appeal process or an option
for that?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
There is an appeal process. I'm not a lawyer, that
is you know, we're exploring all options.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
I firmly believe that every aspect of this case, from
the very beginning, from that first nine to one one call,
needs to be explored. Overview of discovery that was provided
to the state, that needs to be secured looked at
above our seventh district.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, and now it's too late, right, it's too late
to revisit this and talk about any kind of other.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Our defense team did submit a motion for a retrial
based on some case law and some they cited some
rulings that should not have been included, one of which
was the THHC.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I'm not a legal expert. This is my first rodeo.
This is my very first experience with anything like this.
That motion, of course, was denied.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yes, all right, so now you've got long appeals process
ahead of you here, Yes, sir, and your twenty four
year old now son is behind bars in a real
bad spot and could be behind bars for the rest
of his life, which is just insane to me to
think about. Has prosecution at any point come over and
(17:33):
said like, hey, we didn't want this to get this bad. Hey,
maybe do they seem the character? They seem like they're
happy about it.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
They were actually proud of if you look on their Facebook,
Seventh District Court, they almost were glorified.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
And I believe that there's a common in there.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
And I can speak because I am very very close
the families of the Dulans, the Mosures, and the Perkins.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
We are a united family.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Unfortunately, as a result of this tragic accident that has
taken our children. When they posted on Facebook the guilty
verdict coming in. I seem to recall an actual comment
from our Ja livers indicating feeling for the families, And
I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't think the
(18:20):
families have been heard.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
They need to be heard.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, it seems hard to believe that they would want
another person to face this when they lost their children,
and they would know that this was about somebody who
intentionally drove into traffic. This madman who, in some wild
version of this world that we live in, is facing
basically the same charges that your son.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
And honestly, one thing that has been brought up to
me is if we're looking at charging parties, why hasn't
anyone looked at the passenger of the vehicle who was
inebriated enough not to be able to drive.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
She was shut up.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
They were at the Eagle's Nest six hours drinking prior
to this, this accident accident.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
There's no timeline of.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
What happened within the hour and a half that they
were missing, because I believe, oh, I'm sorry, the hour
because they.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Left the eagles.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
There is footage they left the Eagles at one am
and the accident occurred at approximately two fourteen am. But
the passenger willingly gave her hands her keys to Thomas
Petrie and when she was in the hospital wouldn't release
his name even though she knew who he was.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, well, I find more guilt in that, Victoria. One
thing that it just keeps running through my mind right
now is I'm big on fairness. This seems incredibly unfair
and stupid to me in so many ways. But how
are you getting through this? This is your son and
you may he may be in jail for the rest
of his life for this stupidity. How are you getting through?
Speaker 4 (19:53):
This is not the end of my son's story. And I, Devin,
and I have faced this from the very beginning, and
I have this thought in my head and it so
loudly screams to me. And I tell him all the time,
I said, son, you will be put together, piece by
piece in front of those who seek to destroy you.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
He knows it's not the end of his story. I
know it's not the end of his story.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I think with enough exposure, with enough digging, people are
going to see the truth. The charges were extreme. You know,
if there was a charge of a reckless driving or
a speeding so be it. But we cannot factor out
the causation of this horrific accident.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You know, we can take everything out of the equation.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
You know, if Devin had driven off the road, hit
a telephone poll.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
That resulted in the deaths of our family members, that'd
be one thing. But that's not the case.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
If not, and this is even from testimony from the
lead homicide investigator, Brian Gensler, if not for Tom Petrie
driving the wrong way for eight.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Miles, it's it's gone.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Back and forth whether the headlights were on or off.
But the heads of lights were off, this accident wouldn't occurred.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
All right. I want to thank you for taking time
to let people know a little bit more about this. Uh,
we're gonna open things up. I'll see if the prosecutor
is willing to talk with us and say what they
would say from the other side of this. We're going
to keep following this as obviously, sentencing and stuff is
on the way.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
But Victoria, can I give you one last thought? Yeah? Yeah,
And I know I'm also early, but this is a
lot for way to take on.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Savedevin dot Com is a website that is being completed
getting ready to launch where updates for the case. It's
an outlet for the media to contact family members who
do want to be contacted, the duel In family, the
Mosure family.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
They absolutely want their their voices heard.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
They will be listed on the front page of this
to be reached out, to be contacted, to be interviewed.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Let our voices be heard. Okay, savedevon dot com, d
e v I SAVEDVN dot com.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yes, sir, thank you, Victoria Max So, I appreciate you
and appreciate the time.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Listen from the very bottom of my heart. Thank you
all very much forgive I don't have a voice. My
son was not considered a victim. There is no charges
for the injuries, the lifelong injuries that he will sustain
has sustained from the hands of Tom Petrie. There's no
there's no additional charges for Patrick for leaving the scene
(22:33):
of serious bodily injury. For Devin Perkins, there's no accountability. Yeah,
and I'm going to make sure your most are heard.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah. Well, keep keep fighting him. He's going to need
you to to certainly help with the position that he
finds himself in now. But we're gonna keep an eye
all this, and we'll perhaps talk with you more and
keep you in the loops. So thank you for your time, Victoria,
thank you so much. All Right, we're go to take
a quick break.
Right now. There's been a story that we've been discussing
on the show that's perplexing to me. It's a little
insane and there's real, genuine people at the center of this.
So we've done enough of reading through some of the
court documents talking about the story. Is now it's time
to go to the people involved directly in this. And
we have Victoria Maxwell with us. Victoria, can you hear us?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Okay, I can hear. You're just fine, thank you, excellent?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
All right, So your son is Devin Perkins, correct.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
That is correct?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
All right. I want to ask you a little bit
about Devin Perkins here, and we want to talk about
what's going on with him currently. He's a young guy.
What is he twenty two years old at.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The time of the crash, at the time.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Of the craft.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Okay, so he's twenty four now. He was twenty two
years old when this crash happened. Bring me back to
the night of the crash, because I know you thought
your son almost died. I mean, he was very hurt
and he got injured in this accident. So bring me
back to that night.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, it's a miracle that Devin survived.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
He arrived at Halifax, unresponsive, not breathing. We I identified
him the following afternoon as a John Doe is how
I found him.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
But it was a horrific accident.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
What happened to him physically? Would he break bones? Did he?
Speaker 4 (01:18):
He had three broken ribs, He had an enlarged spleen.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
He had a punctured lung.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
He had a broken pelvis that required surgery and plates
pelvis areas. Is not an air of the body that
easily heals. I mean he'll never be the same given
given the impact to the windshields, face for lacerations, cuts
all over his neck, his face, his hands.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Jesus, so he was all beat up after this accident.
It was he lost some of his friends as well
in this accident. Can we talk about them real quick
and just who was Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's that's actually stating at lately.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
He lost the love of his life, Alexander Dulan also
known on social media networks his Alley Spice, his best
friend Kyle Moser, longtime best friend, and Ava Felaman.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
That was the first night that Ava had met.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
The rest of the party in the car.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
It was a good friend of Ali's.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Okay, and were they all with your son in this Infinity.
They were in the Infinity vehicle.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Correct, Okay, at a twenty fourteen Infinity sedan.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
All right. So he they're driving along in this Infinity vehicle.
They had been hanging out together. It's the early hours
of the morning, dark outside. They're driving down a very
small it's a two lane road. Correct, No, No, it is.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
It is a four lane plided highway with a large
grass center median.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
It's State Road forty four.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's a road that actually Devin lives off of.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
He from the time he has received his license, he's
he's quite familiar with State Road forty four.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Okay. So he's headed home. He's on State Road forty four.
And now there are how many vehicles were involved in
this late night, early morning accident.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
There was a total of four vehicles.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
All right. So you got the Infinity, you got this
Toyota truck that we're going to talk about in a minute.
What were the other two vehicles that were involved.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
The third vehicle was a Prius. It was driven by
and I can't Tom DeMarco. He was a witness within
the trio of Devon, Okay, and his car was totaled.
The fourth vehicle managed to get through the incident with
minor damage.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I'm not quite sure how extensive that that last car was.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
All right, Did anybody in the prius die? No, sir, Okay,
So the deaths we're all in the infinity. Was there
anybody else in this Toyota truck?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yes, Joanna Dillon was the passenger. She is the owner
of the Toyota truck.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, did she die or did she survive?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
She survived?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Okay, So the only people who died were your son's
friends in the vehicle with him.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Okay, that's important to know, I think. Okay, so now
your son's driving down the street. Let's talk about the
accident itself, and then we'll talk about sort of what
I think is insane that's happening to your son in court.
But Victoria, your son Devin is driving in the infinity.
He's got his three friends in the car with him
that ended up dying because of this accident. A vehicle
is in his lane, a vehicle swerves into oncoming traffic
(04:31):
and crashes into them at a high rate of speed.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
And I think that we were kind of under the
impression that it was a two lane. Therefore, yeah, but
now it's very clear he went over a median.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
If I could just back you up for just a moment,
because this story actually starts at two three am where
the wrong way driver in the Toyota truck. There was
a nine to one to one call reporting the accident.
This is a clear nine miles east of where this
head on collision occurred. Okay, that was the first of
several calls to nine to one one. The second call
(05:07):
that came in, the driver was able to avoid them.
The second call that came in, I believe it it
was two oh seven. This call had indicated that the
truck now had no headlights.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Okay, so we got a guy who's driving into oncoming
traffic trying to crash in. The second call says, now
he's even turned off his headlights. This person's driving this
toilette track and then eventually he gets further down the
road and it seems clear that he's intentionally crashing into
the vehicle that happened to be driven by your son.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
There's no avoiding it.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
The area is desolate, it is not surrounded by any lights,
any businesses. It's just past the Belusha County fairgrounds. There's
no way to see an oncoming truck heading in front
of you.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So now it seems pretty clear to me what we
have going on. We have this late night accident. We
have somebody who is intentionally driving into oncoming traffic. They
crashed into your son's Infinity vehicle. His three friends unfortunately
die in the car with him. He's very beat up
and battered after this accident. He's a victim. He's a victim.
And all this to everybody who's looking at this story. Obviously,
(06:19):
he goes to the hospital and then at some point
after this you must hear, hey, they're considering charging him
with a crime. He's been moved from victim status. Now
I was charged with the crime. How did that work out? Okay?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, if I could just beck up for just a moment.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Right from the beginning, we all know if some of
the allegations that State Attorney, some of the factors that
they had sort of compiled to charge Devon was the
fact that there was alcohol in the system in THHC.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Blood toxicology was done in the ICU.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
If there was warrant in merit for a DUI or
affiliated to that, it would have he would have been
arrested at that point and all accounts, and just to.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Be clear that the toxicology report said point oh two
or something around that way under the legal limit.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Right, correct, Okay, correct, So he's.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Not impaired with alcohol, he's well under the legal limit,
and that doesn't seem to be an issue. And then
then you talked about the THHC in a system which
was like a minute amount is best I could tell. Correct,
That didn't seem to be having any impact on his
ability to drive safely in that moment. So it comes
down to the fact that they said your son was
(07:33):
speeding in this car. That was the reasoning why a
prosecutor decided to take somebody who was a victim and
maybe send them the jail for the rest of their life.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yes, they they that the culmination was a factor.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
There have been concerns with the investigation and the handling
of this case. And one of the things that really
is not aware is Fellerman and Stern Bully. Ava's uncle
actually had such concerns that he was on route and
in the state of Florida the following Monday morning, September twelfth,
(08:13):
doing his own sort of investigation I mean.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It was his niece, of course that perished.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
I would defer you to some of the other parents
to maybe ask them about their thoughts of how it
was handled. No, everyone was not aware. We were not
aware Devin was a victim. We identified the wrong way driver.
It was identified by Kyle's sister and sister in law.
I believe just the following day.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Huh And okay, Now it's where there's a lot of
questions here, because yes, sir, I don't see anything that
would lead me to believe a prosecutor would say this
is worth going with. Did any of the victims who died,
Did any of those families push against your son Devin
Hurkins and say, hey, he may be a victim too,
(09:02):
Maybe he was driving this car, but he you know,
he should be prosecuted.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
With anybody calling for that, Nobody was vocal in any
fashion in a public forum, with the exception of Greg Fellerman,
which on it was August ninth, was a hearing.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
A hearing that was that he was able to chime
in on a zoom call. I will tell you the
morning of my arrest.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Who is this person that you're talking about?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
This is this is Ava Fellerman's dad, Greg Fellerman.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Okay, all right.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
However, the morning of my son's arrest, I was notified
by Ed Sarambouli, of who actually had civil ties with Devin.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
He told me of the rest before I was even
aware of it.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Okay. So there was one of the family members who
made some sort of mention about charges for your son, correct,
which would have put a little fire under the prosecutor.
The prosecute looks at this and sees that the only
thing you really have is the speeding issue and the reports.
(10:08):
A lot of the reports I saw said that your son,
Devin Perkins was driving one hundred miles an hour, But
it looks like in the court documents that they determined
he was not going that fast at the time of
the crash. It was closer to eighty something.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Right. They have the EDR records, and they do have
and understand that. Please, last week, this whole thing's overwhelming,
So I do invite anyone to fact checked me.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
They do have the last five seconds of his EDR.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
They do indicate I believe it was at five seconds
that he was one hundred miles per hour. They went
down in increments at a half second increments, And I
will tell you this, one thing that I know for
certain is that Devin braked and he did a hard steer.
So maya interpretation of that is he had just recognized
the car coming at him and tried to veer away from.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Unfortunately, when you compare the size.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Of an Infinity Q fifty to a four door or
four cab Toyota to coma truck, there's quite a difference
in the frame mechanisms, there's quite a difference in the
size of the automobiles.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
I think it's kind of a parent considering the fatalities
and the fact that the both guys survived, both of them.
There was another person in the Toyota, he said, and
both of them survived.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Then I brought this up when we talked about.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
It earlier, and forgive me if this was already mentioned,
but had he been going the speed limit or maybe
just five to ten miles over, it still would have
been just as terrible as an accident.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
And where.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Where it lies that he becomes at fault is wild
to me, because that pairs have not been driving the
wrong way, then none of this would have happened.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Right, That's the most person thing. If there was never
If this guy wasn't trying to run into people, nobody's dead,
everybody gets back.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Everybody's if we can eliminate that Toyota truck driving eastbound
in the west boundlanes of State Road forty four.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
And it's not like he went across the street.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Again, this is a four lane divided highway with a
large centagrass medium. We can with certainty say that if
Tom Petrie was not on that road, this would have
never happened. Actually, for all SAIDs of purposes, if Tom
Petrie hadn't been on that road, none of our families
would have lost our children. Because the loss of my
(12:27):
son to Valusia County Corrections and potentially serving thirty years
to life, this is a direct result of Tom Petrie's actions.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, so now we've got your son. Has he been
in jail this whole time? Is he in jail right now?
Speaker 4 (12:41):
No, sir, he was out on bond when the verdict
of guilty came in for the charges of vehicula homicide
and reckless driving. They did revoke his bond last Monday,
and they have him over at Lusia County Corrections.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, okay, this is first defense.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Sorry, this yes question.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
See, that's also very interesting to me because for them
to posit a book so intensely at him, especially without
any priors, it's like, what example are you trying to
make here?
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, to that point, if he had a whole bunch
of DUI's and driving aggressively and getting into a whole
bunch of acts. If you had a whole bunch of
stuff like that, we go, Okay, that makes a little sense,
but it just doesn't add up. And Big House on
YouTube says a jury won't found him find him guilty.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
They did.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
They did find him guilty, but.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
With given the only like the yes or no black
and white. From what I understand of being on a jury,
it's like you're only asked these specific questions.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
They had no other. Yeah, they wred them down a
path where they had to find him guilty. Kind of yes, sar.
Can we talk real quick about they offered a deal?
You're just going to bring that up. Okay, what was
the deal that they offered Devin?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
On paper?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
On paper? Officially they offered him a ten to twenty Okay, yeah,
what about not on paper? Potentially a.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Potentially a lesser sentence if he was to take responsibility
for one of the children in the car, and my
son is stan fast in his conviction that he was
responsible for every person in his car. He was just
as responsible for Ali as he was for Kyle, as
he was for Ava. He took the responsibility as a
(14:35):
designated driver that evening and he said, no, honestly his
exact words, I'm going to take thirty on the chin
before I plead to something that I'm not responsible for.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
So the prosecutor comes at you and says, if he
takes responsibility for one of these people's desks and he
does not find himself to be respected.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Me, let me just clarify, because I don't want my
hand to be slapped. That was that was that was
in ear That was in backdoor conversations. I don't think
that was formally presented at all. When we got back
in front of Judge Nichols, State made sure to express
very very loudly, we want to make sure that people
(15:16):
are aware.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
We offered a ten to twenty okay, So they pushed
back on the other deal.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
What what would be the advantage or I don't know
if advantage is the right word. What did it mean
to take responsibility for one of the people in the
car and not all three like the parent.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
One count of vehicular manslaughter.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I that's coming from Herestay okay, that's that's what I
heard with my ears.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I did not see the paperwork.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
I was not told by prosecutor what it means from
my son if he were to accept to plea. He's
accepting a plea of three felonies. Four felonies yeh, three
of the hicula homicide and one any charge of reckless
driving the serious bodily injury.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
But what I mean now he's been found guilty of
all of these things and has and now what's you
facing life potentially correct?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Yes, sir, is there an appeal process or an option
for that?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
There is an appeal process. I'm not a lawyer, that
is you know, we're exploring all options.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
I firmly believe that every aspect of this case, from
the very beginning, from that first nine to one one call,
needs to be explored. Overview of discovery that was provided
to the state, that needs to be secured looked at
above our seventh district.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, and now it's too late, right, it's too late
to revisit this and talk about any kind of other.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Our defense team did submit a motion for a retrial
based on some case law and some they cited some
rulings that should not have been included, one of which
was the THHC.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I'm not a legal expert. This is my first rodeo.
This is my very first experience with anything like this.
That motion, of course, was denied.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yes, all right, so now you've got long appeals process
ahead of you here, Yes, sir, and your twenty four
year old now son is behind bars in a real
bad spot and could be behind bars for the rest
of his life, which is just insane to me to
think about. Has prosecution at any point come over and
(17:33):
said like, hey, we didn't want this to get this bad. Hey,
maybe do they seem the character? They seem like they're
happy about it.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
They were actually proud of if you look on their Facebook,
Seventh District Court, they almost were glorified.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
And I believe that there's a common in there.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
And I can speak because I am very very close
the families of the Dulans, the Mosures, and the Perkins.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
We are a united family.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Unfortunately, as a result of this tragic accident that has
taken our children. When they posted on Facebook the guilty
verdict coming in. I seem to recall an actual comment
from our Ja livers indicating feeling for the families, And
I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't think the
(18:20):
families have been heard.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
They need to be heard.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, it seems hard to believe that they would want
another person to face this when they lost their children,
and they would know that this was about somebody who
intentionally drove into traffic. This madman who, in some wild
version of this world that we live in, is facing
basically the same charges that your son.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
And honestly, one thing that has been brought up to
me is if we're looking at charging parties, why hasn't
anyone looked at the passenger of the vehicle who was
inebriated enough not to be able to drive.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
She was shut up.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
They were at the Eagle's Nest six hours drinking prior
to this, this accident accident.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
There's no timeline of.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
What happened within the hour and a half that they
were missing, because I believe, oh, I'm sorry, the hour
because they.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Left the eagles.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
There is footage they left the Eagles at one am
and the accident occurred at approximately two fourteen am. But
the passenger willingly gave her hands her keys to Thomas
Petrie and when she was in the hospital wouldn't release
his name even though she knew who he was.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, well, I find more guilt in that, Victoria. One
thing that it just keeps running through my mind right
now is I'm big on fairness. This seems incredibly unfair
and stupid to me in so many ways. But how
are you getting through this? This is your son and
you may he may be in jail for the rest
of his life for this stupidity. How are you getting through?
Speaker 4 (19:53):
This is not the end of my son's story. And I, Devin,
and I have faced this from the very beginning, and
I have this thought in my head and it so
loudly screams to me. And I tell him all the time,
I said, son, you will be put together, piece by
piece in front of those who seek to destroy you.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
He knows it's not the end of his story. I
know it's not the end of his story.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I think with enough exposure, with enough digging, people are
going to see the truth. The charges were extreme. You know,
if there was a charge of a reckless driving or
a speeding so be it. But we cannot factor out
the causation of this horrific accident.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You know, we can take everything out of the equation.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
You know, if Devin had driven off the road, hit
a telephone poll.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
That resulted in the deaths of our family members, that'd
be one thing. But that's not the case.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
If not, and this is even from testimony from the
lead homicide investigator, Brian Gensler, if not for Tom Petrie
driving the wrong way for eight.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Miles, it's it's gone.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Back and forth whether the headlights were on or off.
But the heads of lights were off, this accident wouldn't occurred.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
All right. I want to thank you for taking time
to let people know a little bit more about this. Uh,
we're gonna open things up. I'll see if the prosecutor
is willing to talk with us and say what they
would say from the other side of this. We're going
to keep following this as obviously, sentencing and stuff is
on the way.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
But Victoria, can I give you one last thought? Yeah? Yeah,
And I know I'm also early, but this is a
lot for way to take on.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Savedevin dot Com is a website that is being completed
getting ready to launch where updates for the case. It's
an outlet for the media to contact family members who
do want to be contacted, the duel In family, the
Mosure family.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
They absolutely want their their voices heard.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
They will be listed on the front page of this
to be reached out, to be contacted, to be interviewed.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Let our voices be heard. Okay, savedevon dot com, d
e v I SAVEDVN dot com.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yes, sir, thank you, Victoria Max So, I appreciate you
and appreciate the time.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Listen from the very bottom of my heart. Thank you
all very much forgive I don't have a voice. My
son was not considered a victim. There is no charges
for the injuries, the lifelong injuries that he will sustain
has sustained from the hands of Tom Petrie. There's no
there's no additional charges for Patrick for leaving the scene
(22:33):
of serious bodily injury. For Devin Perkins, there's no accountability. Yeah,
and I'm going to make sure your most are heard.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah. Well, keep keep fighting him. He's going to need
you to to certainly help with the position that he
finds himself in now. But we're gonna keep an eye
all this, and we'll perhaps talk with you more and
keep you in the loops. So thank you for your time, Victoria,
thank you so much. All Right, we're go to take
a quick break.
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