35-Year Sentence Handed Down To Man Who Crashed Into Pinellas Deputy

PINELLAS COUNTY, FL — After pleading guilty to third-degree murder, DUI manslaughter and a felony charge of driving while his license was suspended or revoked, 35-year-old Robert Allen Holzaepfel was sentenced to 35 years in prison in the death of Pinellas County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Magli.

Under the plea agreement with prosecutors, Holzaepfel avoided a possible life sentence in prison.

At the sentencing hearing Friday, the deputy's wife, Stephanie Magli, had the opportunity to say what's been on her mind to the man responsible for her husband's death on Feb. 17, 2021.

“You robbed a great man of a good life,” Magli told Holzaepfel . “But you also robbed my kids of the life that they deserve, and an opportunity for me to grow old with my best friend.”

Breaking down at times, she recalled the heartbreak of having to tell her 5-year-old daughter that her father was never coming home and watching their baby daughter take her first steps without her father.

Holzaepfel declined to address the courtroom but his public defender, Margaret Russell, spoke on his behalf: “Your honor, Robert Holzaepfel has asked me to say that there’s no apology, no act of atonement, no words of prayer that can bring back this loved husband, father, friend and colleague.”

The courtroom was filled with law enforcement officers on hand to show their support for Magli's family.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri sat with Magli's wife and parents, Frank Magli and Angela Magli-Ramirez.

Afterward, Gualtieri said Magli's death, the first in the sheriff's office's 110-year history, weighs heavily on everyone at the Pinellas sheriff's office.

“For us, this is the first, thankfully, and hopefully the last ever in the history of Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office,” he said. . “And it is something undoubtedly that we think about every single day and will think about every single day, as we should.”

He added, "This is justice. The system worked the way it was supposed to work."

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Around 4:15 p.m. Feb. 17, 2021, the Pinellas County Fire Department was called to the intersection of Forelock Road and East Lake Road in unincorporated Tarpon Springs after Holzaepfel was found passed out behind the wheel of his 2002 white Ford F150 pickup truck at the intersection's red light.

Rescue crews broke out a window to assist Holzaepfel. Holzaepfel then awoke and fled the scene, driving north on East Lake Road and east on Keystone Road, driving fast and recklessly to evade deputies.

According to investigators, Magli, a deputy since 2013, was traveling north on East Lake Road and stopped in the median to place a tire deflation device to stop Holzaepfel's truck.

Magli was standing outside his sheriff's SUV when Holzaepfel entered the median and lost control of his truck. The pickup truck flipped over and collided with Magli and his patrol vehicle.

Magli was pinned under his patrol vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene. Holzaepfel was uninjured.