Paramedics respond to the accident which killed Nona and Lindsey Moore.

Nona Moore, a mother of three young girls had grown up in Wauchula. She was heading home on a narrow two lane road that night. Her family remembers when they were called to the scene.

"When we got out there finally and parked it looked like daylight because there were so many floodlights. And maybe 100 people were out there already." Said Beth Jahna, Nona Moore's sister.

Nona Moore and her daughter Lindsey died in the crash.

"I heard horns beeping and my mom was screaming," remembers Ashley Moore, 16, the oldest of Nona Moore's daughters. "The last thing I remember is her saying is help us Jesus, we're going to crash."

Thanks to quick work by paramedics, Ashley, now 16, and her younger sister Haley, now 10, survived. But Nona Moore, 40, and Lindsey Moore, 8, died at the scene. A family and a town were left heart broken.

"I think the community lost two people they loved dearly and someone had to pay." Jahna told us.

Jean Claude Meus is serving 15 years in prison for vehicular homicide.

"We were in disbelief," says Rebecca Chenowith who is engaged to marry Jean Claude Meus. "We thought they'd at least see it was an accident. There was no justification for it."

Blood tests show that Meus was not on drugs and had not been drinking. There was also no evidence to prove that he had been speeding. But prosecutors were convinced that his actions were criminal. Records show hours after the accident occurred, a trooper says Meus fell asleep in the back of a patrol car and concluded that before the accident, Meus must have fallen asleep at the wheel.

The truck driver was tried in the Hardee County Courthouse in Wauchula. It took an all-white jury less than an hour to reach the verdict: Guilty of Vehicular Manslaughter.

Judge Charles B. Curry sentenced Meus to 15 years in prison, an almost unheard of punishment for falling asleep at the wheel and causing a fatal accident.

"There are people who have DUI manslaughter who have not gotten that kind of time," argues Chenowith. "Literally drunk, killed lots of people and did not get that kind of time."

"If I fall asleep, I say I fall asleep." Meus told us, his thick Haitian accent apparent even though he has lived in the United States for more than 20 years.

Meus has never changed his story. He says the accident happened because a white car cut him off. He swerved to avoid a crash, but lost control and flipped over on the Moore's van.

"I stayed, I called the police," Meus said, "I did not leave the scene."

Meus says the trooper who saw him in the patrol car misunderstood. He was not sleepy, but just disoriented and confused after hitting his head on the windshield of his truck during the crash. He says he slept 10 hours before he got on the road and has the paperwork to back up his claim.

"I wasn't doing anything reckless to cause the accident." Meus says and he has some surprising allies in his fight to be released from prison.

Dana Christenson and Beth Jahna say their sister would not want Meus in prison.

Nona Moore's sisters are convinced Meus did not fall asleep, but they say there was no way for him to get a fair trial in Wauchula because emotions were running high.

"I heard people were high five-ing each other as they were doing jury selection." said Dana Christenson, Nona Moore's older sister. "I know that two women high fived each other when one made the jury. I think they wanted to burn him."

Court records show four of the six jurors had read all about the accident in the local paper. Two of them knew one of the troopers who investigated the accident and testified at trial. Did they carefully consider the evidence or make up their minds in advance? None of the jurors really wanted to talk. But one woman on the jury reluctantly agreed if we didn't show her face.

A member of the jury tells Doug Smith she has doubts about the case.

Juror: No, I don't think so.

Doug Smith: If the prosecution didn't prove that he was asleep at the wheel, how did the jury decide to convict him of that?

Juror: Because he was the driver and there were two people dead.

"They had to channel their anger somewhere." Beth Jahna believes. "I think they meant well, but they just didn't think of the consequence or how severe it might be for him, for Jean Claude."

He's now inmate H17740. An educated man who speaks five languages is learning how to survive in prison while his fiancée and Nona Moore's sisters fight for his freedom. They're writing letters to the state attorney and making phone calls, but they say nobody wants to hear it.

"They pretty much told me to stop calling." Dana Christenson said.

Both sisters say Nona Moore would not have wanted Jean Claude Meus to go to prison, and his deep sorrow over the accident is punishment enough.

"It's very emotional when you see somebody lose their life." Meus told us wiping tears from his eyes. "Some things you cannot change."

Haley and Ashley Moore who survived the crash say they forgive Meus.

"You've already lost two lives over this," says Ashley Moore. "Why lose another?"

Meus has served just seven months of his 15-year sentence. He's already appealed his case once and lost. He's now hired high-profile criminal attorney John Trevena to take a closer look at his situation. Despite all that's happened, Meus still hasn't lost hope.

"This is the best country in the world," he said. "People can see justice, and they can see injustice. Somebody will step up and help me."

Fox 13 contacted Judge Charles B. Curry and the State Attorney"s Office, but no one involved with this case would agree to an interview.



Update: On November 15, 2005, members of the Hillsborough County NAACP called a news conference to express outrage at Jean Claude Meus's 15 year prison sentence. Since we first aired this investigation, two more jurors have agreed to be interviewed. They told Doug Smith they believe Meus's sentence was too harsh. One male juror said the information we exposed in our report would have made a difference for him if he had heard it at trial.