After Losing Her Mother and Grandmother, Crash Victim Extends Kindness to Driver as He Is Sentenced to Prison

The outcome of today’s sentencing hearing was foretold: three years in prison, followed by 10 years on probation and a lifetime driving ban for John Garrison, the 50 year old whose reckless driving on the rim of Bunnell in April 2022 led to a head-on crash that caused the death of 59-year-old Debra Ashrafi, severe injuries to Ashrafi’s daughter Shana Sciortino, who was 41, to her 79-year-old grandmother Shirley Burkett, and to Garrison himself.

Burkett has since died. Garrison was not charged for that death.




Garrison had pleaded out in early November before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols. The plea, negotiated with Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark, with Sciortino’s agreement, led to what the judge called a “substantial downward departure” in the severity of the sentence. He was guilty of vehicular homicide and two counts of reckless driving causing serious injuries. He had faced a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison if convicted at trial, and would have normally faced at least seven to nine years in a plea, even with a clean record. But the victim’s family agreed to leniency, as long as Garrison was not allowed to drive again.

So today’s sentencing hearing could have been mostly a formality. But it wasn’t. These hearings rarely are when they involve ordinary people, law-abiding people, possibly if not likely good people who’d been going about their lives only to find themselves–those who survived, anyway–living and suffering through the unimaginable because of a split-second misjudgment.

Garrison and his son were in a car, following Garrison’s colleague in another. They were driving to Virginia for a job assignment. There was no hurry.  They were on State Road 11 just outside Bunnell. Garrison’s colleague passed a vehicle and a semi truck. Garrison was doing the same, his eyes on his colleague’s tail-lights instead of on the road ahead. When his colleague moved over, the other car appeared. There was a collision.




“With one horrible decision, you changed my life,” Sciortino said today, reading her statement to the court by zoom. “One moment, I had a mom who believed in me and loved me. The next moment I overheard a responder confirm my mom was gone while I was being strapped in the back of an ambulance. There are no words that can express what I felt beyond a guttural cry that I screamed out. Over the next few months, I then had to hear my gram suffering from her injuries and the loss of her daughter before succumbing to them. Another scream from the deepest parts of my soul.”

As Sciortino read her statement from a blue notebook, Garrison stood at the lectern in front of the judge, with his attorney, Brian Smith. Garrison sobbed. Garrison’s son was in the gallery with a friend, also overcome. He had been injured in the crash, but not as severely.

“These two women were the people I trusted most in the world, and who knew me the best, and they are gone,” Sciortino read on. “They were peace and love in a world of chaos and hate, and now it feels like the world is mostly chaos and hate. So what I want to leave you with today is that I aspire to be that, like my mom and my grandma, and I hope that people know they can count on me for anything, and that I love them unconditionally. And my hope for you is that with some time and reflection, you will also do some good in this world. Spread joy, not hate, support your friends and family in any way. You can be the best pop, be your best possible self, because my mom and gram can’t anymore.”




Garrison had described the sequence of the crash on State Road 11 just outside Bunnell in a deposition a while back, and had ended in sobs at that time, too. “I’m dying inside,” he’d told the opposing attorney, who was understanding. It was the first time that Sciortino had spoken of the experience in court. It was a remarkable statement for its forbearance, reflective of the forgiving sentence, and reminiscent of the time three years ago in the same courtroom when the father and grandmother of a 14-year-old boy killed in a motorcycle crash did not want to ruin the life of the 21 year old responsible for the death. The 21-year-old got six months in jail and 14 years on probation. (See: “He Took Their 14-Year-Old Son’s Life in a Motorcycle Crash. Their Grace Saves Him from 9 Years in Prison.”)

Garrison, who had been a Deltona resident, did not get off that lightly, though the three-year prison sentence will likely end after two and a half years, with “gain time.” Garrison was older than the motorcyclist. He was a parent himself. “I wanted to thank you for your kind words,” he told Sciortino through tears after getting the court’s permission to address her. “I’m so sorry what I did to you and yours.”

Nichols, the judge, was struck by Sciortino’s statement. “For years and years, I’ve been in felony divisions. I’ve heard many victim impact statements,” the judge said. “And yours focused on the people who matter most, the people who you loved and cared for. And you weren’t vindictive, you weren’t mean. You, in fact, were very kind. And I want to thank you for your statement.”




After noting the significantly lighter sentence, the judge spoke her appreciation to the negotiating sides, including the victim, “because these cases are some of the most difficult, most emotional cases,” Nichols said. “Many times the defendant in the case is not a horrible person, but what has happened has tremendously horrible results.”

The forbearance has limits. Garrison faces four civil suits as a result of the crash, including one from Sciortino and one from Ashrafi’s spouse. Both actions are seeking significant damages. That trial is set for late May before Circuit Judge Chris France.