Ron Humphrey

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Or a split second.

For Joe Avila, 51, the world turned upside down in one horrifying moment in September 1992—pierced with the sounds of screeching tires, crunching metal, shattered glass, and the last gasps of life.

In the words of his neighbors, Joe was a "good family man"—living in Fresno, California, with his wife, Mary, and daughters Elizabeth and Grace. He made a good living as a site acquisition engineer with Nextel and McCaw Communications. He helped out his neighbors and the community, using his pick-up truck to deliver supplies to the homeless shelter and to carry games to church and school carnival fund-raisers.

But Joe Avila had a dark side: He was an alcoholic—a dangerous one, with five drunk-driving convictions.

Then, on September 18, 1992, while racing drunkenly down a Fresno freeway, Joe plowed his pickup truck into the rear of a car driven by a 17-year-old high school honor student and cheerleader named Amy. The crash killed Amy and severely injured her classmate passenger. Joe fled the scene but was arrested a few hours later at his home.

Five days later, sitting with the chaplain in the Fresno County Jail, a deeply sobered and remorseful Joe gave his life to Christ and asked God to redeem him from his life of sin and alcoholism.

With his prior conviction record and a manslaughter charge, Joe was looking at 12 years in prison. But his attorneys wanted to fight the case. "Everybody does it, we'll get you off," they told him. So Joe put up bail and checked into the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center while awaiting trial. "I was a brand-new Christian; I needed to get grounded in my faith," he explains. "I started reading the Bible and learning about Christ, especially the forgiving Christ, because that was what I needed most at the time."

When his trial date arrived, the new Joe-in-Christ shocked his attorneys, ordering them to switch his plea to "guilty." No plea-bargaining, no drawn-out trial to punish his family and the victim's family; just prepare for the maximum.