ATLANTA — He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for running over a cyclist in 2014. Now, Joseph Lewis has been recommended for work release, followed by parole.
Prosecutors said it all started with an argument on June 9, 2004. Avid cyclist Greg Germani was on his bike riding from Turner Broadcasting, where he worked, to his home.
"You know, it was a day that changed our lives forever, especially Greg’s," his partner, Beth Anne Harrill told 11Alive's Elwyn Lopez.
"He was hit in a road rage incident in a neighborhood by a driver who turned around in the middle of the road, to run him down, hit him, dragged him and left him for dead," Harrill added.
A video shows the driver chasing Germani down. The cyclist was struck and suffered a severe brain injury.
"This is somebody who cycled 8,000 miles a year, and that’s just gone. What he loved, he's been robbed of," Harrill said.
Lewis fled, but police arrested him weeks later. In 2014, Lewis was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
But five years later, on May 31, 2019, Harrill said she got a letter from the Office of Victim Services.
"Saying I have two weeks to respond as to why the man who hit him shouldn’t be given work release and eventually parole, and I just burst into tears. I was sobbing," she recounted.
Now, Lewis may be transitioned from prison into a work release program.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles told 11Alive that the board has made a tentative decision to release him for parole next year - July 2020 - but it isn’t a final parole decision.
The board says that that tentative decision can change anytime, adding that, all cases are reviewed thoroughly before a final decision is made.