Road-rage driver offers blame at sentencing

Convicted killer points to media, prosecutors, jury

Ivan Moreno, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 17, 2007 at midnight

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CENTENNIAL - Jason Reynolds' voice trembled, but his words seemed to convey more self-pity than remorse.

The 34-year-old said the crash that killed two men whose families sat in the courtroom Monday wasn't his fault, and he put the blame for his conviction on "media whores," prosecutors and what he said was a misled jury.

Reynolds' comments drew a quick rebuke from Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour, who handed two life sentences to the first person in Colorado's history to be convicted of first-degree murder for deaths resulting from road rage.

"Mr. Reynolds, you might as well have been standing in the middle of the highway with a gun pointed at people," Samour told Reynolds. "You used your car as a weapon, and you played Russian roulette."

Reynolds tailgated Kelvin Norman then cut in front of Norman's Toyota 4Runner and slammed on the brakes, setting in motion the carnage on E-470 east of Parker Road on Nov. 8, 2005.

Norman, a popular 50-year-old soccer coach, swerved to avoid Reynolds' Jeep Wrangler and lost control of his vehicle, which rolled across the median and landed on top of a car driven by Greg Boss, a 35-year-old Postal Service special agent.

The crash killed both men instantly.

"To the Boss and Norman family, I would like to express how sorry I am that you lost a loved one," Reynolds said at the beginning of his courtroom statement.

Reynolds said he was slandered by the media and that prosecutors "brought in everything but the facts of this case." He also said some jurors shouldn't have served because they acknowledged hearing about the case before they were selected for his January trial.

Samour said he would not allow Reynolds to criticize the jury, adding that the defendant had no one to blame but himself.

"You were not convicted because of the media," Samour told Reynolds.

"You were convicted because of your senseless act."

Reynolds had a long history of problems while behind the wheel, including four reckless driving incidents in 2005.

"On Nov. 8, Jason Reynolds did not make an unintended mistake," Mary LaFrance, Boss' girlfriend, said before Reynolds was sentenced. "And like many times before, he used his vehicle to threaten a driver."

Keith Norman, Kelvin Norman's father, called Reynolds "a psychopathic killer" who showed no remorse for his actions.

A tow truck driver who was at the scene of the crash testified during the January trial that Reynolds told him that Norman "got what he deserved and got what he had coming."

"(Reynolds) murdered two people, and he just didn't seem to care," LaFrance said. "Is this the kind of person we want to have free in our society?"

Emotions were not confined to one side of the courtroom. Reynolds' relatives and friends addressed the judge, telling him the man they know is not a killer.

"He's been my best friend for 34 years," said Christina Reynolds, who began to cry when she talked about a brother who never forgot a birthday or anniversary. "I'll never forget the time he cried like a baby when a friend's dog died or the time he gave mouth- to-mouth resuscitation to a kitten."

As his sister spoke, Reynolds, who was handcuffed and wearing a blue suit, wiped tears from his eyes.

"I think everyone should know that my brother is not a monster," she said.

But for Jeanne Norman, who became a single mother of two girls, Reynolds is the man who "killed all the dreams my husband and I had and all the dreams we had as a family."

"Our lives will forever be changed by one person, Jason Reynolds," Jeanne Norman said. "I'm not sure if a conscience exists in Jason Reynolds' wiring, but I know for sure that he will now eat his own words. 'You got what you deserved' - (that's) what you said to my husband."

In their own words

Kelvin Norman's daughters express the loss they feel over the death of their father.

• SAMANTHA NORMAN, 16

"On my 15th birthday, I went home from soccer practice to hear my dad had been killed in a car accident due to road rage. My dad didn't deserve to die that day. He was such a good and happy person, and he wasn't ready to have his life end.

He was a soccer coach, and everyone loved him, especially us, his family. That's why it just doesn't make sense why someone like my dad had to be taken in an act of road rage.

Soccer practice went as usual and seemed fine. When I got in the car with my mom to go home, I got the most horrible feeling in my stomach, like something bad had happened.

The night just kept growing worse. We had found out there had been an accident on E-470 and a white SUV was involved. We were all worried, so my mom dropped me off at home and drove to the highway. But police wouldn't let her past a certain point. About an hour later my aunt got a call from my mom saying bring the two girls to the police station.

So we were driving, and once we had passed the hospital, I knew he wasn't alive. We got there, and I was crying and kept saying, "Just tell me he's OK; just tell me he's OK." And my mom goes, "I wish I could, but I can't, Sam. He's dead."

I don't think I have ever screamed louder in my life. That was the worst moment of my life. I felt like someone had taken a knife to my heart and stabbed it over a thousand times."

• STELLA NORMAN, 12

"I thought I knew what pain was until the day my father died. On Nov. 8, 2005, I experienced a kind of pain that compared to nothing I've ever felt before. I got a call from my Aunt Julie telling me that she and my mom were going out and that I shouldn't worry.

Thirty minutes later, we left for the police station. I could do nothing but stare out the car window into darkness. When we arrived, I was told my dad was dead.

My tears were uncontrollable, the hatred unbearable and the confusion unrecognizable. Pain runs deeper than tears, sadness, hurt or emotions tied up in a knot. It's when you hurt so much inside that you don't know what to do.

Hurt is what I feel every day because of one night, the night when a part of everyone felt like they died, too. This is what I feel every day thanks to one man and his decision to take his anger out on my father."

morenoi@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2895

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