Jermeria Holycross appears in a hospital bed after suffering major injuries on Aug. 10, 2024 in Florida (GoFundMe). Inset: Boris Twillman (Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office).
Boris Twillman of Florida has been charged with attempted murder after police say he tailgated a woman in a fit of road rage, hit her rear bumper, and then — when she pulled over on the side of the road and got out of her car to assess the damage — proceeded to run her down with his Jeep, allegedly smiling maniacally at her as he hit the gas.
The woman, Jermeria Holycross, was reportedly dragged several feet along U.S. 19 South in Largo near the intersection with East Bay Drive. She suffered numerous severe injuries including a broken pelvis and leg, a broken rib, multiple lacerations, scrapes and burns on her skin. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the 24-year-old woman’s aunt, Misty Moore, said her niece was also experiencing extraordinary psychological trauma.
“I think the biggest thing that sticks out to her, that she just keeps saying, is he just smiled and laughed at me as he hit me. She is very traumatized and just has this image in her head,” Moore said.
According to an arrest report obtained by Law&Crime, police said the Pinellas Park resident attempted to kill Holycross when he “intentionally hit the victim with his vehicle (a 2016 Jeep Wrangler), pinning her against her vehicle (a 2016 Volkswagen Jetta) and dragging her along the driver side where by causing her serious bodily injury” and then left the scene of the crash,
“The victim believed that she had been rear-ended by the defendant and stopped her vehicle … witnesses detailed the [defendant] stopped behind the victim. The victim made spontaneous statements to [law enforcement officers] while being medically treated that while she was out of the vehicle checking for damage, the defendant smiled at her and then rapidly accelerated toward her … the defendant’s Jeep was later discovered at his residence but he had left the residence with his girlfriend’s vehicle prior to officer’s arriving,” the report states.
Police said that Twillman called the Largo Police Department after he allegedly struck Holycross and told a dispatcher that “something” had occurred on U.S. 19 but “he was not personally involved in a crash.”
“He further detailed that he left his employer at approximately 2:44 p.m. and came home,” the report said. Police cameras showed the defendant’s “vehicle on east bound Drew Street at Keene Road at 2:51 p.m.”
The timing of the defendant leaving his employer being on surveillance cameras in the area of the crash are consistent with travel times taking that route without stops, police also noted.
In a statement to local Fox affiliate WTVT following Twillman’s arrest, the Largo Police Department called Twillman’s conduct “extremely dangerous and reckless.”
WTVT reported that Holycross was in the car with her younger brother as well as her boyfriend’s two toddlers. The woman’s mother, Tammy Holycross, told the outlet that her daughter said she had tried to get out of Twillman’s way but he kept tailgating her.
“When he hit the car, she got out because traffic was stopped and she wanted to look at the damages,” she said. “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.”
Tammy Holycross said the children saw the young woman’s face hit the glass of the vehicle.
“They were screaming and they were saying that baby girl just got killed. Her face hit the glass and then the kids saw that, and it started pouring out blood. So that definitely was a bad scene for anybody to have to see,” she said.
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help pay for medical expenses.
Public court records show that at the time of the alleged attempted murder, Twillman was out on bail since May for felony aggravated battery, battery of a person 69 years or older and aggravated assault charges tied to an incident in April. He was also facing charges of possession of a firearm during a commission of a felony and domestic battery by strangulation. That incident appears to have involved Twillman’s own mother and son, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Bond was set at $850,000 for the attempted murder in the first degree charge. Bond was set at $125,000 for the charge of leaving the scene of a crash involving serious injury.
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