DELAND, Fla. — The accused wrong-way driver in a crash that killed a Luzerne County woman nearly two years ago in Florida pleaded no contest to vehicular homicide during a hearing Friday at a courtroom north of Orlando.
According to records filed in Florida’s seventh judicial circuit, Thomas Petry entered the plea on eight felony counts that alleged he caused a crash that killed three people in 2022 on a Volusia County highway, including 20-year-old Ava Fellerman, who moved to Florida from Luzerne County to attend college.
In a no contest plea, a defendant accepts conviction but does not acknowledge guilt.
Petry, 55, is scheduled to be sentenced in DeLand after a pre-sentence investigation.
According to Florida Highway Patrol, Petry, after a night out at a bar Dec. 10, 2022, drove his pick-up truck at least eight miles in the wrong direction on Route 44.
Then, not long after 2 a.m. the following morning, Petry collided head-on with an Infiniti Q50 near Jesse Michael Drive just east of DeLand.
The crash killed three passengers in the Infiniti: Fellerman, Kyle Moser, 25, and Alexandra Dulin, 21, who was famous on social media as the video creator “Ali Spice.”
After the crash, police said Petry fled the scene on foot and was spotted walking south along a road four miles away by a concerned driver named Jeanne Jewell.
“She stated his clothes were dirty and he looked like he was in a fight,” police said.
After an investigation, the police arrested Petry at his home in Orange City.
Petry’s passenger, Joanna Dillon, told the police she and Petry had been out drinking for six hours before the crash and that Petry had been the one behind the wheel.
Investigators said her statement was backed up by another witness and by a DNA swab of the pick-up truck’s driver side airbag.
Trial was slated to start Sept. 23, court filings show. The plea obviates the need.
Police in Florida also filed vehicular homicide charges against the driver of the Infiniti, Devin Perkins, 24.
Perkins, of New Smyrna Beach, had been in a relationship with Dulin, according to a video posted on social media by Dulin’s parents, Jimmy and Tamra Dulin.
According to an affidavit, Perkins told investigators that the group had been out that night at a bar in Orlando and the crash happened on the drive back to his house.
He denied he had been drinking, but bloodwork taken an hour after the crash showed the presence of alcohol and THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana.
Data from the Infiniti’s computers show the car was traveling roughly 100 miles per hour five seconds before the collision, police said.
Perkins pleaded not guilty to the charges. A jury trial is slated to start in that case Sept. 23.
