Joseph Safrany was serving a Florida DUI sentence of life in prison for a 2000 drunk driving accident that took the life of three people. The 45-year-old challenged the sentence with hand written arguments and by filing appeals after spending years behind bars reading law books. Safrany seemed to pull off a major shocker when he got a judge to grant him the opportunity for a new sentence but on Monday Circuit Judge Wayne Timmerman sentenced the man to 50 years in prison.
Safrany was driving nearly 30 miles over the posted speed limit of 45 mph in April of 2007 when his Cadillac crashed with a Honda, which had four men inside including a driver who was drunk himself. Three of the men died including the driver of the Honda who also would have been facing Florida DUI charges had he survived the crash. The three passengers who lost their lives were all between the ages of 19-23 and the group was returning from what TampaBay.com describes as a night out partying in Ybor City. The car was hit so hard by Safrany that it rolled 140 feet after the collision.

Safrany suffered broken ribs in the accident and was released from jail of $55,000 bail. Friends threw him a party before his trial and then he vanished, living for more than a year under the identity of a dead man. He eventually turned himself in after he was shown on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted”.
He was offered a plea deal that included DUI penalties of 15 years in prison for the manslaughter charge and another five years for being a fugitive. He turned that deal down. This time around his attorney was asking for the same 20 years Safrany was offered in a plea deal years ago. The offer was no longer extended to him by prosecutors and now he will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison.