Third District Judge Keith Kelly wanted time to think.
He had the authority to sentence a teen to 30 years in prison Thursday for being convicted on two counts of manslaughter. The prosecution, along with one victim, asked for the now-19-year-old Abraham Miranda to spend a year in jail. The families of two teens killed by Miranda wanted nothing less than years in prison.
Kelly called a 15-minute recess, then returned to the courtroom from his chambers and approved a plea deal: one year in jail for Abraham Miranda.
Miranda, 19, caused a February car crash that killed two of his West High School classmates and severely injured a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
While Miranda faced the potential of two to 30 years in prison, Salt Lake County Deputy District Attorney Adam Blanch said an investigation and a pre-sentence report showed that the teen had a promising life in front of him. Miranda is not a public safety risk, Blanch said.
However, with the way Miranda drove in the lead-up to the crash, Blanch said, “the outcome was almost inevitable.”
On Feb. 16, Miranda was driving 95 mph in a 40 mph zone on his way to an arcade when he crashed into 32-year-old Amy Elizabeth Stevenson-Wilson’s vehicle.
Miranda’s two passengers, 17-year-old Vidal Pacheco-Tinoco and 18-year-old Dylan Emilio Hernandez, died. Stevenson-Wilson left the crash in critical condition, with 16 broken bones, lacerations to her kidney and spleen, a collapsed lung and a brain injury. Her fetus, which was 34 weeks along, was born shortly after, delivered by an emergency cesarean section. Doctors have said Stevenson-Wilson‘s baby girl had brain damage and will have trouble using the left side of her body.
During the sentencing, about 45 friends and family of those involved in the crash packed into the courtroom benches, passing boxes of tissues around to soak up tears. A handful of others peered through the glass doors from outside the room.
Several people affected by the crash gave input to Kelly, and some of their recommendations were conflicting.
Hernandez’s mother, Ginger Bosen, asked Kelly to send Miranda to prison, as did two of Hernandez’s aunts and his grandfather.
Bosen said there was no way to protect her son from this sort of situation, and the grief led to her spending a week in a psychiatric hospital, being put on an “anti-depressant cocktail” of four medications, therapy sessions and anxiety attacks.
“I heard a lot of empathy for the perpetrator, but where is the concern for the victims?” she said.
David Bosen, Hernandez’s grandfather, also opposed the plea deal.
“If justice is to be served, the punishment must match the destruction of two families,” he told Kelly.
Pacheco-Tinoco’s mother also spoke, through a Spanish-speaking translator, and asked for the teen to go to prison, saying a year in jail would send the message that this sort of driving is tolerated.
Stevenson-Wilson took a different tack. Using crutches and wearing a boot on her right ankle, she took to the lectern to ask for mercy.
She said she was in Utah on a trip from Colorado Springs, Colo., and was heading to the Salt Lake City LDS Temple when Miranda hit her.
Her husband, Kyle Wilson, ended up quitting his job and moving so he and his young daughter to be with Stevenson-Wilson and their newborn baby, Grace Deliverance Wilson, in Utah. Stevenson-Wilson and Grace spent more than 30 days in the hospital.
But Stevenson-Wilson said she recovered well in the months that followed the crash. She started walking in April and was running before having surgery on her ankle. Grace, who was born without a heartbeat after being deprived oxygen for 11 minutes, also appears to be doing well and was in the courtroom Thursday. However, doctors say it will take seven years to fully measure the long-term brain damage she incurred.
Stevenson-Wilson said she and her daughter were blessed with a speedy recovery, and they hold no ill will toward Miranda. Sending him to prison would waste his life, she said.
“Please be lenient and merciful in the sentencing of Abraham Miranda,” she said.
Wilson echoed her sentiment, saying a 30-year sentence would be his “greatest fear.”
Miranda’s attorney, Greg Skordas, said he received about 100 unsolicited letters in support of his client after the crash. He said Miranda has a life full of promise and just made a dumb, youthful decision.
“It would be a tragedy to take that away from him for something — whether we want to admit it or not — that half of us in the courtroom have done,” Skordas said.
When given his opportunity to speak, Miranda apologized to the families and said he thinks of his crimes often. But he said despite his mistake, he has aspirations to live a fulfilling life. He wants to go to college, study business and become a pillar in his community.
“All I can ask for is an opportunity for redemption,” he told the judge. “I will not take it for granted.”
After breaking to deliberate, Kelly came back and followed the recommendation. He suspended a one- to 15-year prison sentence and imposed a year in jail. Miranda was given credit for the 135 days he has already served. He was ordered to be on probation for five years after his release.
He will have to do 250 hours of community service — which Miranda said he will serve by speaking to high school students about the dangers of reckless driving — and pay restitution, the full amount of which will be decided later.
“This is the appropriate balance,” Kelly said, “between punishment and mercy.”
