A Boulder District judge on Friday bucked recommendations by a prosecutor and defense attorney and sentenced a Boulder teen who struck and killed two people in May while driving high to a year of work release at the Boulder County Jail.
Quinn Hefferan, 18, will also have to serve two years of probation. He pleaded guilty in December to two counts of vehicular homicide and DUI in the May deaths of Joe Ramas and Stacey Reynolds, telling Judge Patrick Butler at the time that he had fallen asleep behind the wheel after smoking marijuana.
He remains free pending a space opening up at the jail.
Ramas, 39, and Reynolds, 30, who were riding in the same vehicle, both died in the hospital a few days after the crash at Arapahoe Avenue and Foothills Parkway. Hefferan also struck a second vehicle.
The prosecution and Hefferan’s attorney asked the judge to send Hefferan to the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections — the maximum would be for two years but attorneys differed on how long — telling the judge that would be the most appropriate sentence for him. Hefferan was charged as a juvenile and as such faced a far less severe punishment than had he been charged as an adult.
Butler, however, followed more closely the recommendations of the presentence investigation and sentenced Quinn to work release at the jail, telling a standing-room-only courtroom that he felt the sentence was the most appropriate given the circumstances of the case.
“I apologize if I put this indelicately, but if you kill someone — and in this case two people — you need to be punished for it,” Butler said. “You need to have a significant sanction.”
Several friends and family members of Ramas and Reynolds spoke during the 90-minute-long, emotionally fraught sentencing hearing and expressed anguish at losing two people who were well known and liked in Boulder.
None of them, however, called for severe punishment and the general mood was that of forgiveness and a call for Hefferan to do something good with his life.
“There is something you can do for me, my family and Stacey — I think Stacey would want you to live a fulfilled life,” Reynolds’ sister, Lisa Postlewait, said before sentencing. “Reflect on your life, and be the best person you can be.”
David Croster, a friend of Ramas, said that if his late friend were in court on Friday, he would be angry but would not see the sense of a third life being lost. He added that he wants to forgive Hefferan, but he still isn’t sure how to yet.
“No matter the punishment leveled upon you, I imagine you will suffer,” he said. “You have an opportunity to turn our suffering into a life lesson and spread it everywhere you go.”
Boulder County Deputy District Attorney Erica Baasten said via email after the sentencing hearing that Hefferan took responsibility by pleading guilty to the three charges.
“This is an incredibly tragic case,” she said. “Our sympathies remain with the families and friends of Stacey and Joe through this difficult time.”
Hefferan’s attorney, Michael Rafik, declined to comment via email following the hearing, but Hefferan, who became overtly emotional several times during the hearing, apologized to the family and friends of Ramas and Reynolds — some of whom he has met with since the crash.
“I struggle to find the words to describe … the remorse and the sorrow I feel,” he said during the hearing. “I caused the deaths of Joe and Stacey. The consequences of my actions are irreversible, and they carry a weight I don’t think the community should have to bear.”
John Bear: 303-473-1355, bearj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/johnbearwithme
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