LAKE HAVASU CITY — A motorcycle crash resulting in devastating injuries in early 2024 played a role in a road rage confrontation in Lake Havasu City 13 months later. Details unfolded during a May 14 hearing in the case against Jeffrey Lockwood, 23.
Deputy Mohave County attorney Aaron Smith said Lockwood was walking in the 1600 block of McCulloch Boulevard when he was nearly struck by a vehicle on March 8. Lockwood reportedly tossed his coffee in anger, and confronted the apologetic driver and pointed a weapon at him.
Defense attorney Ross Carponelli told Judge Billy Sipe that Lockwood suffers PTSD, anxiety and depression related to crashing his motorcycle near Sand Dab Drive on February 6, 2024. He said Lockwood lost an eye, suffered extensive skull fractures and other injuries that leave him vulnerable to potential death if struck again.
Carponelli said Lockwood is “hypersensitive” and protective after doctors have told him additional injury could be fatal. The Court was told that Lockwood carried a firearm for self preservation.
“I broke almost every bone in my body and I lost my left eye,” the honorably discharged Army veteran who now works as an EMT said. “I’m not a terrible person. I just made a terrible mistake.”
Smith told judge Sipe that the victim supports the plea agreement convicting Lockwood of disorderly conduct. He said the victim wants the defendant to get help.
Sipe said Lockwood simply should have avoided conflict and confrontation.
“I tell people all the time to just leave people alone,” the judge said. “You apparently threw some coffee at the vehicle and it escalated from there.”
Sipe said Lockwood’s expression of remorse is genuine. He placed the defendant on probation with no further incarceration beyond the two days he previously spent in custody.
