A Florida man out on bail for pistol-whipping his own son allegedly smiled and laughed as he ran down a young woman during a road rage incident outside Tampa last week — then he drove away, leaving his mangled victim on the side of the road as her hysterical family looked on.
Jermeria Holycross, 23, was driving with her teen brother and her boyfriend’s two young kids near the intersection of Highway 19 and East Bay Drive in Largo at about 3 p.m. on Aug. 10 when alleged attacker Boris Twillman started tailgating her, according to ABC Action News in Tampa.
Holycross pulled over because she thought she’d been rear-ended — and that’s when cops say Twillman, 57, smiled at Holycross, then sped up and rammed her with his Jeep Wrangler, pinning her between the cars and dragging her along the driver’s side of her Volkswagen Jetta.
“When he hit the car, she got out because traffic was stopped and she wanted to look at the damages,” heartbroken mom Tammy Holycross told Fox 13 Tampa Bay.
“Well, as she looks, he proceeded to look at her, smile and laugh, and hit the gas and [accelerate] and run her over in front of my son and her boyfriend’s two children.”
“They were screaming and they were saying that baby girl just got killed,” she continued. “Her face hit the glass and then the kids saw that, and it started pouring out blood.”
Meanwhile, Twillman was allegedly maniacally cackling as he crushed the young woman.
“She says, ‘Mom, all I keep playing in my head is him looking at me laughing and still running me over,” Tammy told Fox, adding that the kids thought Holycross died on the spot.
Twillman, a veteran, had been out on bail after an April arrest for allegedly pistol-whipping his son with a Glock — which broke the victim’s nose and orbital bone — and pushing his mother against a wall during a March 19 argument, the Tampa Bay Times said.
Cops say he took off after nearly killing Holycross. But he called police later and told them something had happened on the highway — but he hadn’t been involved.
Police arrested him on charges of first-degree attempted murder, and lodged him in Pinellas County Jail without bond.
His alleged victim, meanwhile, suffered a broken pelvis, broken ribs, a broken leg, facial cuts and road rash.
She later told her mom that Twillman had followed her for 15 minutes before the attack.
“She said, ‘I kept moving out of his way, he kept behind me,’” Tammy said.
After several surgeries, Holycross returned home and is now in the care of her family. But she has a long recovery ahead of her.
She’ll have to relearn how to walk, and she’s fearful that her broken pelvis might one day bar her from having kids.
“I just care that she’s here. If the recovery takes three years, five years, I’m still here for her,” Tammy said in an interview with Tampa Bay 10.
Tammy described her daughter as a loving jokester who always looks on the bright side of things.
“That’s why I think it bothered us so much is because she’s too sweet,” her mom said. “She’s humble.”
“This can’t be real, can’t be happening to our family,” her aunt, Misty Moore, added. “Jermeria is such a good girl. She’s vibrant, bright, energetic … This was an outright slaughter of a human being on the side of the road.”
Tammy said she’s already forgiven her daughter’s would-be killer — but she still wants to hold him accountable for his horrific deeds.
“My main concern is that I’m not burying her, you know?” Tammy said. “But I feel like justice needs to be served.”