Joseph Volpe, the infamous “Trucker Spy” who opened fire on a truck driver during a bout of road rage was sentenced on July 18th. He was convicted of second-degree attempted murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon – all serious felony charges. He has given a surprisingly light sentence.

In Tennessee, the average sentence for second-degree attempted murder is between 8 and 30 years in prison, for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon it’s 2 to 12 years, and for reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon it’s 1 to 6 years. This means that Volpe could have easily served anywhere from 11 to 48 years in prison. Instead he is to serve less than a year in a Tennessee state work house and pay restitution to his intended victim of $17,500. The restitution will be made in payments of $250 for the next seven years.





If Volpe fails to make payments or if he has any incidents at the work house, he will serve three consecutive sentences for a total of 13 years in prison.

Until the incident, Volpe would drive around the nation’s highways with video cameras hoping to find truck drivers with unsafe driving habits. His “company,” Third Eye Highway Safety, would then send a copy of the video to the driver’s trucking company who would pay him for exclusive rights to keep the video from being released to the public.

It was on one of these trips that he encountered Bruce Johnston, a veteran owner operator. The incident occurred when Volpe grew agitated and ended up pulling his car beside Johnston’s rig and firing a single round from his 9mm through the back of Johnston’s sleeper. The bullet missed Johnston’s head by mere inches.

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Source: overdrive, attorneys