A Florida man out on bail for pistol-whipping his own son was reportedly smiling when he struck a young woman in a road-rage incident outside Tampa last week, then sped off, leaving the mangled victim on the side of the road as her hysterical family looked on.
Germeria Holycross, 23, was driving with her teenage brother and her boyfriend’s two young children near the intersection of Highway 19 and East Bay Drive in Largo around 3 p.m. on August 10 when suspect Boris Twillman began following her. According to ABC Action News in Tampa.
Holycross pulled over, thinking she’d been rear-ended, when police said Twillman, 57, smiled at her, sped off and hit her with his Jeep Wrangler, pinning her between the cars and dragging her along the driver’s side of his Volkswagen Jetta.
“When he hit the car, traffic was stopped and she got out of the car because she wanted to see the damage,” said his grieving mother, Tammy Holycross. He told Fox 13 Tampa Bay.
“She was looking, and he looked at her, and he smiled and he laughed, and he stepped on the gas. [accelerate] He then ran her over in front of my son and her boyfriend’s two children.”
“They were screaming and saying their baby had been killed,” she continued. “The baby’s face hit the glass and the kids saw it and he started bleeding.”
Meanwhile, Twillman was allegedly laughing maniacally while crushing the young woman.
“My daughter said, ‘Mom, in my head I still see him looking at me and laughing and him running me over,'” Tammy told Fox, adding that her children thought Holy Cross died at the scene.
Tuillman, a military veteran, had been out on bail after being arrested in April on charges of hitting the son with a Glock, breaking his nose and orbital bone, and of pushing the mother against a wall during an argument on March 19. The Tampa Bay Times reported.
Police said the gunman fled after nearly killing Holycross, but later called police to say something had happened on the highway and that he had not been involved.
Police arrested him on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder and booked him into the Pinellas County Jail without bail.
Meanwhile, the alleged victim suffered injuries including a fractured pelvis, broken ribs, a broken leg, cuts and abrasions to his face.
She later told her mother that Tullman had been tailing her 15 minutes before the attack.
“She said, ‘I kept moving out of his way and he was right behind me,'” Tammy said.
After several surgeries, Holy Cross is back home and is now under the care of her family, but her recovery will be a long one.
She will have to learn to walk again and fears that her broken pelvis will one day prevent her from having children.
“I just want her to be here. Even if it takes her three or five years to recover, I’m here for her,” Tammy says. He said in an interview with Tampa Bay 10.
Tammy described her daughter as a loving, jokey person who always saw the bright side of things.
“I think we were so confused because she’s too nice,” her mother said. “She’s a humble person.”
“This can’t happen, this can’t happen to our family,” her aunt Misty Moore added. “Jermelia is a very good girl. She’s happy, bright, energetic. … This was a total massacre of humans on the side of the road.”
Tammy said she has already forgiven the man who attempted to kill her daughter, but still wants to hold him accountable for his horrific actions.
“My biggest concern is not having her buried,” Tammy said, “but I feel like justice should be served.”
