VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A Virginia Beach man got much more than the normal maximum sentence for crashing his car into a Providence Road bookstore late last year, injuring two people, including a pregnant woman.
Joseph Samuel Grillo, 43, will serve 11 years in prison after pleading guilty July 31 to charges of DUI maiming—permanent injury, DUI maiming—serious injury and DUI. Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Steven C. Frucci sentenced Grillo to 16 years in prison, with five of those years suspended.
The sentence is far above the high end of the Virginia state sentencing guidelines, which recommended a sentence of no more than two years and one month.
“This is the type of behavior that should keep the citizens of Virginia Beach up at night,” Frucci said after making his sentence, according to the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.
If the matter had gone to trial, the Commonwealth said its evidence would have shown that, around 7:30 p.m. Dec. 30, 2022, Grillo drove his vehicle through the front doors of the Smith Discount Bookstore in the Providence Square Shopping Center.
Witnesses at the scene saw his vehicle speeding down the road and into the store, crashing through shelves of books and a vending machine before stopping, pinning two people inside the store, including a woman who was 25 weeks pregnant at the time.
That person, who was sitting at the time of the crash, was pinned against the bookshelf and vending machine and suffered lacerations on her back and a hurt hip. She would go on to deliver a healthy baby.
Another person was pinned between a table and bookshelf and suffered a fractured tibia, which required surgery. A metal rod was put into her leg, forcing her to be in a wheelchair for several months.
A Virginia Beach Police officer had spoken to Grillo — who was observed with a strong odor or alcohol coming from his breath, along with watery, glassy eyes and slurred speech — after he was taken to the hospital. On field sobriety tests, he had showed impairment and admitted he was heading to an adjacent ABC store in the shopping center.
“I have a problem,” Grillo told the officer, according to the Commonwealth’s evidence. “I drink daily if I can get it.”
Grillo had told the officer that he was on suboxone and had started drinking “strong Bourbon, 40 proof” at 1 p.m. on the day of the crash.
He told the officer he had not had a lot to drink, telling the officer that, a lot to him is a gallon of liquor per day. His blood alcohol level on the night of the crash, at .402, was five times the legal limit.
Grillo had prior convictions for two counts of public intoxication and reckless driving.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul J. Powers and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Morgan C. Milliken prosecuted the case.
