KINGMAN – A Golden Valley teenager offered apology at his Oct. 28 sentencing hearing for failing to remain at the scene after the vehicle he was operating struck and killed a pedestrian. James McDaniel, 69, was dead at the scene of the Jan. 2 incident in the vicinity of Chino Drive and Adobe Road.
“I’m sorry for what happened and for the victim’s family,” said Dehaven Shaffer, 19.
Defense attorney Brad Rideout requested no further incarceration for Shaffer, who had already spent almost eight months in custody.
“He does have remorse judge. He feels terrible about this,” Rideout told Mohave County Superior Court judge Lee Jantzen. “You can see he’s not cheerful about being here. We’re asking for probation.”
Deputy Mohave County attorney Leah Nelson emphasized that Shaffer fled the scene and avoided arrest for more than two months. His remorse, she said, was more about getting arrested and prosecuted.
“The defendant did not report anything. In fact, he had a lie, a story concocted ready to give to police when he was contacted,” Nelson said. “It was only upon being confronted with the contradictions in this lie that he finally fessed up to what happened. That doesn’t show remorse. That’s actually quite opposite of remorse. Oftentimes in situations like this where a defendant suddenly shows remorse because he’s now been caught.”
A letter to the Court from the victim’s son asked for a prison sentence for not helping his father.
“For him to be hit and abandoned like that was nothing short of disrespectful,” he wrote.
Nelson said no one will ever know of McDaniel might have survived had Deshaver done the right thing.
“The victim in this case may still be alive today if the defendant had acted differently, if he had stopped, if he had rendered aid, if he called for help, if he didn’t just leave the victim lying bleeding in the road,” Nelson said.
Judge Jantzen agreed.
“This is not the type of case from the Court’s perspective where somebody dies in the middle of the street because nobody reports it that would in my mind result in someone receiving probation,” Jantzen said. The Judge ordered a 3.5-year prison term.
Dave Hawkins
