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Convicted hit-and-run driver wants lighter sentence
Gloria Gomez reports
TAMPA, Fla. - Allison Huffman is back from prison and demanding a lighter sentence. She is serving 28 years behind bars after pleading guilty to a hit-and-run crash that killed a tow truck driver in Tampa back in 2016.
But now, she claims her attorneys made several legal mistakes, including never letting her testify and making false promises.
During a hearing on Tuesday, Huffman testified that her callous actions that day were caused by her bipolar diagnosis and depression.
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" I had no idea what happened, what had hit my car. I know I needed to pull over immediately, so I did as soon as I felt it was safe to get off the bridge," she explained. "When I got out of my car and saw, I didn’t understand what I was looking at. I just froze. I can’t explain, I didn’t even feel like I was in my body. I just felt like I needed to get away."
Back in May 2018, Huffman pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a crash involving death, that killed tow truck driver Roger Perez Borotto, on the Howard Frankland Bridge two years earlier.
Instead of stopping to help, prosecutors said Huffman dumped her car at a nearby hotel and then took a taxi to Walgreens for a snack. But it didn’t end there.
She then headed to the Hard Rock Casino where she gambled for hours. She explained in court why she went there.
READ: Woman accused of hitting tow truck driver to plead guilty
"It was a familiar place where I didn’t have to involve anybody directly," said Huffman.
But later at the hearing, one of her former attorneys, Jennifer Strouf, testified that she never made Huffman promises of a lighter sentence. She also pointed out that Huffman rejected a state deal of 20 years behind bars.
When asked if she had made a counter offer to prosecutors of 10 years in prison, Strouf replied, "No."
At her sentencing, the judge would send her away for 28 years – a stiff sentence Huffman never saw coming.
Now, it will be up to Tampa Judge Michelle Sisco to decide if her lawyers failed her, and Huffman deserves a second chance. Sisco did not rule today, but she plans to hand down a written ruling in the next few months.