GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Paisley Sellick remembers the first time she talked to Joey Deweese.
"First time we spoke, we went out to dinner," she explains. "He was kind of in my life every day from that moment on."
They dated, got a place together and got engaged.
"One of those ridiculous relationships," Paisley says. "You talk about it and you really think it only exists in like Rom-Coms, but wholeheartedly it was like that in real life."
Until this past summer in July. Paisley's life changed the instant Joey's life was taken away.
High Point Police say a drunk driver hit Joey going the wrong way down Business-85 with her lights off near the Baker Rd. exit. Paisley was driving in the car behind him.
"I watched the whole thing perfectly. Even to the point where I pulled over very calmly and it wasn't until I got out of my car and looked down the highway that I sort of realized what had happened," Paisley says. "I actually thought that his car blew up."
Joey was airlifted to the hospital, but didn't survive the crash. Police arrested the other driver, Serenity Givens, on multiple charges including DWI and second degree murder.
“I stopped calling it an accident a long time ago," says Paisley. "People refer to it as an accident and I kind of taken that out of my vocabulary since Serenity, drunk or not, chose to get in her car that night.”
But what’s frustrating to Paisley, and so many of Joey’s family and friends, is that the driver is in a place where she could make that alleged choice again. When police arrested Givens, she was taken to jail and a bond was set at $750,000. But a few weeks later, a judge reduced it s to $150,000. Givens posted bond and got out under the condition she not drive a car.
“She’s an obvious threat to the public," Paisley says. "How better do you prove that than murdering somebody out of negligence?"
What's worse is that Givens has been convicted of drunk driving before. In fact, police say she had a suspended license and wasn't supposed to be driving the night she allegedly crashed into Joey's car.
We reached out to the Judge’s office multiple times and have been told Guilford County Judge Betty Brown has no comment.
So, we looked into how this all works.
Attorney David Freedman, who is not involved in the case, told WFMY News 2 that judges typically consider a few main things when setting bail: whether or not the person is a threat to the public; the seriousness of the crime; and whether the person is a flight risk, which means a person won't sow up at court if they get out of jail.
Most judges in North Carolina go by a set of guidelines for various charges when picking an amount. Freedman says judges can choose to reduce or raise them at their discretion and they don’t have to say why.
“I’m almost nervous to hear an answer because I don’t think it will be good enough," Paisley admits.
The movement #JusticeForJoey came from the judge's decision as a push to hopefully get her to reconsider the next time Givens is in court. There was even an online petition calling the judge be removed from the bench.
But as the punches keep coming, Joey’s family and friends keep rolling.
Joey Fest, a celebration of Joey's life, kicked off at the Blind Tiger in early October. It also served as a fundraiser for Joey's family.
"It could have been easily avoided and it wasn’t because of someone making a really silly mistake," says Joey's friend Kyleigh Chesnutt. "It took someone like family to a lot of us away from us way too soon.”
But you can still see little pieces of Joey throughout Greensboro. There's art, murals, shirts, stickers and billboards with Joey's name and face on them. They're all a tribute to Joey, but a sobering plea for others.
“Usually the drunk person isn’t the one who loses their life," says Jaden Craig, another one of Joey's friends. "It’s the innocent people involved and there’s no sense to make of it. No other community needs to be turned upside down. Just think twice.”
The clerk of court says Givens' case moved to Superior Court earlier this month. Her next court date is Nov. 13th.