Arapahoe County – “When you are driving down the road and you see someone driving so recklessly you say to yourself, ‘That person is going to kill someone,’ that is the person, right there,” a prosecutor told an Arapahoe County jury Wednesday during closing arguments as she pointed at Jason Reynolds. “Except he killed not one, but two people.”
Reynolds, 33, of Parker, could face life in prison if convicted on two counts of first-degree murder with extreme indifference. He also faces two counts of vehicular homicide stemming from the Nov. 8, 2005, crash on E-470.
Killed in the crash were Kelvin Norman, 50, of Highlands Ranch and Greg Boss, 35, of Lone Tree.
Prosecutors told jurors that Reynolds “knowingly” drove like a “madman” without any regard for how his “aggressive and dangerous” driving could affect others on the road.
Witnesses testified earlier in the two-week trial that Reynolds was weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds the day of the crash.
One witness said Reynolds – who has a history of aggressive driving including tailgating – pulled his Jeep in front of Norman’s Toyota 4Runner and hit his brakes, causing Norman to lose control of his sport utility vehicle.
Norman’s vehicle flew up and crashed upside-down into Boss’ Ford Explorer. Boss and Norman died at the scene; Reynolds was not hurt.
Prosecutor Karen Pearson described Reynolds’ Jeep as a “4,000-pound deadly weapon” because of his aggressive and dangerous driving.
When other drivers, through no fault of their own, would slow Reynolds down, he’d become agitated, Pearson said.
“He’s mad, he’s angry, he intends to retaliate,” Pearson said. “He knew what he was doing. He didn’t care what happened. He didn’t care who it affected.
“It shows a depravity of heart,” Pearson told jurors before they went into deliberation. “It shows he is guilty of murder in the first degree.”
Defense attorney Phil Cherner told jurors that Reynolds did not hit his brakes when he pulled in front of Norman and he did not deliberately cause the crash.
“If you want to find him a terrible driver, you will get no argument here,” Cherner said. “But this is not a driving case; it’s a murder case.”
If Reynolds had hit his brakes at about 70 mph, Cherner said, there would have been a rear-end collision. And that did not happen, he said.
Cherner asked the jury to “honor the presumption of innocence you walked in here with” and find Reynolds innocent.
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it erroneously stated that Reynolds could face the death penalty, if convicted. He can only face life in prison.
