VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A Volusia County man who was sentenced in November for his role in a 2022 wrong-way crash that killed three people, including a social media influencer, is seeking to withdraw his plea.
Prior to the 37-year prison sentence that Thomas Petry, 55, of Orange City seeks to avoid, he pleaded guilty to charges of reckless driving with serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury and three counts each of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash with death.
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Investigators say Petry was driving his pickup truck the wrong way along State Road 44 in December 2022 before colliding with a speeding car and leaving the scene by the time first responders arrived. He was arrested in April 2023.
The wrong-way crash killed a 20-year-old woman, a 25-year-old man and 21-year-old Alexandra Dulin, known by her fans and on social media as Ali Spice. Dulin had garnered about 1 million followers between TikTok and Instagram before her death.
According to court documents, Petry’s attorney, Richard Zaleski, filed the motion to withdraw the plea and vacate the sentence.
“The defendant states that at the time of his plea and ultimate sentence, he was not fully aware of the consequences of his plea,” Zaleski wrote in the motion.
Petry was sentenced on Nov. 7 and the motion was filed on Monday. In Florida, filing a motion to withdraw a plea is allowed up to 30 days after sentencing.
Along with Petry’s motion, Zaleski also filed a motion Monday to withdraw from the case citing “irreconcilable differences and ethical obligations.”
Petry wasn’t the only person arrested in connection to the crash. After a five-day trial, a Volusia County jury found the other driver — Devin Perkins, 24, of New Smyrna Beach — guilty of three counts of vehicular homicide and reckless driving with serious bodily injury.
According to Perkins’ charging affidavit, the route to the crash site began at a bar and spanned about 37.5 miles, on which Perkins averaged a speed of 97 miles an hour.
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