Man Convicted of DUI Manslaughter Loses His Lawsuit Against Victims
On average, nearly 250,000 traffic accidents occur in Florida every year, resulting in nearly 3,000 fatalities, according to the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles. Each of these tragic motor vehicle crashes is terrible in its own respect, but a lawsuit filed by David Belniak against the victims of an auto accident he caused while under the influence of drugs and alcohol sent ripples of shock throughout the Tampa Bay, Florida area and surrounding counties. National and international news outlets including ABC News and the Daily Mail in the U.K. have even reported on the story.
On Christmas Day in 2007 at approximately 2:20 p.m., Linda and Raymond McWilliams of Hudson, Florida, together with their daughter Denise and son-in-law Gerard Bassi, were stopped at a red light in their Chevrolet Tahoe on U.S. 19 at the intersection of Little Road. They were traveling to their other daughter’s home in Brooksville to celebrate the holiday. At the same time, David Belniak of Spring Hill was driving behind them on U.S. 19 at dangerously high speeds of approximately 75 to 85 miles per hour. As a result, Belniak failed to stop and crashed his Nissan Titan pickup truck into the rear of the McWilliams’s Tahoe, causing massive damage and the eventual deaths of all three passengers in the Tahoe. Raymond McWilliams, who was driving the Tahoe, survived the crash but never fully recovered; he died in March 2011.
Incredibly, Belniak walked away from the accident with minor injuries. Authorities reported that Belniak had cocaine, Xanax, and alcohol in his system at the time of the auto accident. He later was charged with three counts of DUI manslaughter, pled guilty to all of them, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison with an additional 10 years of probation. According to the St. Petersburg Times, 38-year-old Belniak had a history of DUI charges and served 17 months in prison after pleading no contest to trafficking GHB (the date rape drug) in 2003. Belniak also struck and killed a pedestrian on U.S. 19 in 1994, but he was not charged following that incident.
If this story had ended there, it may have gone unnoticed beyond the Tampa Bay, Florida area. In December, 2011, however, four years after the catastrophic crash that ultimately killed the McWilliamses and the Bassis, Belniak filed a lawsuit against the relatives of the accident victims. In the complaint, Belniak’s attorney (and sister) alleged that the other driver, Mr. McWilliams, was responsible for the accident by veering from the left turn lane into the left through lane. Belniak demanded more than $15,000 in damages for Belniak’s mental anguish, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment for life.
The family of the victims was obviously stunned, particularly after Belniak had already pled guilty to DUI manslaughter in connection with the same accident. Additionally, the lawsuit was filed in the same month in which the accident occurred in 2007. While this was likely done to preserve Florida’s four-year statute of limitations in negligence cases, it was no less painful the families of the deceased, who not only had to face another Christmas without their loved ones but were now being sued by the man responsible for their deaths.
The victims’ families previously filed their own lawsuit against Belniak for their damages. During the recent trial of both cases in Pasco County, Belniak presented to the jury the extreme and permanent bodily harm he allegedly sustained: a faint scar on his elbow. On June 12, 2012, the jury determined that Mr. McWilliams was not at fault in the crash and awarded a total of $14 million to the relatives of the victims Belniak in compensatory damages. The parties later reached a settlement of $1 million in punitive damages.