JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After a two-year-long legal battle, the Behr family received $12.8 million in compensatory damages earlier this month, after their daughter was killed in Jacksonville by a driver who was under the influence.

The parents, Monique and John Behr, who had been planning to relocate from Chicago to Jacksonville to be closer to their daughter, Nell, before her untimely death, say no amount of money will be able to fill the void now in their family.

“To send a message to the community that this should never happen again, the way to do that is with a significant verdict,” said Aaron Davis of Davis Goldman, PLLC. “I would expect that verdict to be seven or eight figures at a minimum.”

21-year-old Nell was at Whiskey Jax when a drunk driver, Ramon Cerda, collided head-on with her vehicle back in January 2023. Two years later, Cerda pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

“Nobody gets in their car and drives drunk thinking that they’re going to get in an accident,” Tom Scolaro of Scolaro Law said. “That’s not a thing. People do it because they think they’ll be fine; they’ll get through it and think nothing bad will happen. There’s not a large community of people that are getting in their car, drinking to cause an accident.”

The attorneys representing the Behr family, Davis and Scolaro, said in their experience, no two DUI cases are alike. However, most of the time people make the decision to drive under the influence after they’ve been drinking.

“Problems arise when you make that decision of, ‘Oh, I’ll be ok to drive’ after you start drinking because alcohol obviously impairs decision-making,” said Scolaro. “If you’re making that decision to drive or not drive while you’re drinking, you’re already making the wrong decision. The decision should be made before.”

“I will note that the defendant in this case testified that fairly consistently, he would have up to 18 drinks a night,” Davis said. “And he believed that he would be fine on the night of the incident because he only had somewhere in the neighborhood of half of that or less.”

With the Fourth of July coming up, both attorneys say to take advantage of ride share programs or plan to have a designated driver.

“Around this holiday weekend, at the end of the day, you’re talking about maybe a $20 Uber ride,” said Scolaro. “Twenty dollars versus a jail sentence, your life altered, your relationships ruined, lives ruined.”

The attorneys add to be extra vigilant while driving during holidays like the Fourth of July if you’re on the roads and to make a plan of how you’re going to get home before any substance is in your system.