Woman sentenced to 28 years in crash that killed 2 on Bayside Bridge

A St. Petersburg woman convicted in a DUI crash that killed her passenger and a motorcyclist will serve 25 years in prison.

A Pinellas judge on Friday sentenced Shanquia Zaneta Holte to 28 years in state prison, followed by two years of probation, closing an investigation into the fatal crash that occurred more than three years ago.

Holte has spent those three years in jail awaiting trial and will get credit for time served as part of her sentencing.

During Friday's hearing, prosecutors presented autopsy photos, recorded interviews and jail calls to argue that Holte should receive a sentence of 40 years. There were more attendees than seats inside the tense Pinellas County courtroom, and a bailiff ejected one relative after an argument broke out between Holte's family and victims' relatives.

Holte, 32, sank down and hunched forward over the defense table when Judge Joseph Bulone read her sentence.

During jury selection for her trial in April, Holte changed her plea to guilty on all five charges: two counts each of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide and one count of driving under the influence.

Holte spoke briefly in court Friday and apologized to the families of both victims killed in the crash.

"It was a good night that went bad," she said.

On Jan. 24, 2021, Holte drove a 2019 Nissan Altima across the median on the Bayside Bridge in Clearwater and collided with two vehicles, killing her passenger, Kristina Marie Afasano, 29, and a motorcycle rider, Thorney Ray Spell, 52, investigators said.

Matthew Barnhart was outside his home that night on 162nd Avenue playing cornhole with his 18-year-old son when he heard tires screeching.

He turned to see a car cornering at a high speed around a bend in the road. Then he heard the crash.

"I heard it and I saw a glimpse of it. It all happened so fast," he told attorneys in a deposition.

Barnhart recalled jumping over a fence and running to the scene. He cracked open the passenger door, but not enough to free Afasano, who he said was "twisted 180 degrees" and struggling to breathe.

"Half of her body was facing one way, the other half of her body was facing totally the opposite," he said. "And the motorcycle driver was even worse."

Barnhart said he could tell immediately that the motorcyclist was dead and Holte was unconscious but OK, so he turned his attention to Afasano.

He called over construction workers who were tending to Spell, and together they pried open the Altima's passenger door with hammers from a nearby job site.

That's when he noticed Holte "crawling out" of the driver's side, he said in the deposition. Barnhart helped her away from the car just as paramedics arrived.

"She was concerned with her friend," he recalled. "She kept asking me about her friend."

Prosecutors argued that Holte had no remorse for her actions that night.

Prosecutors pointed out that Holte, speaking during a recorded jail call, called Afasano "a bug" who Holte said she was using to get over a prior relationship.

"She's a manipulator, narcissistic, and she cares more about herself than she cares about what she's done in this case," Assistant State attorney Kathryn Spurlock said.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers determined Holte was driving south on the bridge when she lost control, crossed the median and struck two northbound vehicles — a Nissan Rogue and Spell's 2018 Qipai motorcycle. Holte's Altima and the motorcycle came to rest in the tree line on the east side of the bridge. The Rogue spun across the median and came to rest in the southbound lanes.

An expert witness hired by Holte's lawyers to conduct crash reconstruction testified Holte struck the motorcycle while moving between 79 and 88 mph, according to court records. Prosecutors said Friday Holte had been driving at 105 mph prior to the crash.

Holte and Afasano were not wearing seatbelts, troopers said. Holte told investigators she had been drinking Hennessy on the rocks at a lounge north of the bridge and was feeling "tipsy," according to an arrest report.

Corp. Tabarie Sullivan, the lead investigator on the case, testified that he found a bottle of Hennessey in Holte's car.

Holte had a blood alcohol level of .191, more than twice the legal limit for drivers of .08, according to arrest records.

When Sullivan first spoke with Holte in her hospital room at what was then called Bayfront Medical Center, he smelled alcohol on her breath. He conducted two interviews about 3 a.m. and Holte told him that she had smoked marijuana earlier that afternoon and still had two joints in the car, according to a recording played in court Friday. A drug test taken at the Pinellas County jail tested positive for marijuana.

Sullivan told Holte that Afasano, her passenger, had died.

"She kept apologizing," the trooper said in a deposition.

Holte was treated for minor injuries at Bayfront and arrested seven hours after the crash.

Afasano suffered deadly brain injuries, a fractured chest and organ lacerations, while Spell received a fractured upper jaw and lacerations of his heart, lungs, liver and spleen, according to the doctor who performed their autopsies.

The 50-year-old Tampa woman driving the Rogue was not hurt.

Kimberly Johnson, who testified Friday she has known Holte since birth, called the crash a "freak accident."

Prosecutors pounced.

"You said this is an accident, but it's not an accident," Spurlock said. "Ms. Holt made a conscious decision to consume alcohol that day."

Afasano's mother, Stefanie Afasano, read a statement in court and said both women made a mistake when they got in the car after drinking.

"My daughter wasn't a saint, but she was a good person," Stefanie Afasano said.

She is now raising her 15-year-old granddaughter, Zaniah, who she said "misses her mother every day." Shortly after the crash, the family started a GoFundMe page to help with costs for raising Zaniah.

Lisa Spell, the wife of the motorcyclist killed in the crash, also read a statement during Friday's hearing and told Holte that she deserves the death penalty.

"You are guilty, and I'm here to see you get the max," Lisa Spell said. "I hope you take your life while in prison."

Thorney Ray Spell was a veteran who grew up in Raleigh, N.C., his wife said. The couple lived in Holiday, not far from his daughter Alicia Hall in Brooksville, according to an obituary .

After Holte was fingerprinted and escorted out of the courtroom, Lisa Spell grappled with the sentence.

"It's not enough," she said. "None of this is going to bring my husband back, but it gives me closure, as she will be away for all those years."