A Tampa DUI trial unlike any other is underway in a Hillsborough County courtroom as an alleged drunk driver who never hit anyone is facing felony DUI charges for manslaughter. The case is attracting national attention because there is already a woman in jail serving time for DUI manslaughter for killing the same man who the current driver is on trial for killing. Confused? The jury may be too.
Amir Sarhaddi was driving on I-75 following Guavaween in 2007. He noticed a flipped Jeep and pulled off the highway to help. While doing his good deed a drunk driver ran into both Sarhaddi and the car involved in the accident killing Sarhaddi. Easy enough right? The driver should be in jail serving a long DUI jail sentence for killing the Good Samaritan. That driver already has been sentenced. This trial is aimed at putting the original driver who was involved in the first accident in jail for DUI manslaughter since that driver was allegedly drunk as well.

Hillsborough County prosecutors are trying James Braley for DUI manslaughter claiming if he wasn’t driving drunk and rear-ended that Jeep Sarhaddi would never have stopped to help out at the accident site and hence never been hit by the third driver. According to the story on TampaBay.com the prosecutors contend that his intoxication at least contributed to the death of Sarhaddi, which is exactly what the law states is needed to convict someone of DUI manslaughter.
The woman who has already been convicted for DUI manslaughter and was sentenced to five-years in jail will testify in the trial. She took a plea deal in January. Sarhaddi’s wife will also testify about the last moments she spent with her husband before the crash. The defense lawyer in the case tried to get evidence admitted that Sarhaddi was drunk as well at the time this all happened but that request was denied by the judge in the case.