Centennial – Kevin Kraft on Monday faced the family of a woman he killed in a drunken-driving collision and said he was feeling good about himself.
But family and friends of his victim, Arlene Gavrilis, were reliving their pain, less than a year after Kraft was sentenced.
The bride-to-be was killed on her wedding day after having alterations done to her dress, which was found in the wreckage.
Her fiancé, Adam Hawkes, has moved from Colorado and didn’t attend the hearing, where Kraft, a DUI repeat offender, asked the judge to reconsider his 12-year sentence.
“Too many memories – they are everywhere,” said Hawkes’ mother, Ginger Thayer.
She described the hearing, held at the Arapahoe County Justice Center, as “devastating.”
“We had to do this again; we thought we had it behind us,” Thayer said.
She told District Court Judge William Sylvester: “Arlene doesn’t get to renegotiate her time in death.”
In June 2006, Kraft pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and driving under the influence.
Kraft, now 29, recently completed a department of corrections boot camp in which he excelled.
On Monday, he asked Sylvester to reconsider the 12-year-maximum prison term.
“I feel blessed with what I have,” Kraft told the court, noting that he talks with his children by telephone. “I hope to be a part of their life sometime.”
Arlene’s brother, George Gavrilis, speaking on behalf of his family, asked Sylvester to stick with the full sentence.
The judge did just that, to the relief of the victim’s family.
At last year’s sentencing, Sylvester noted Kraft’s driving violations, which include speeding tickets and a 2003 drunken-driving wreck that injured the other driver.
On Monday, Sylvester said he decided to leave the sentence intact, in part, because Kraft never completed an alcohol-rehabilitation program for the 2003 wreck.
“Perhaps you would not be sitting here in the situation you are in now,” Sylvester said. “You chose to drink and drive again; the victim is now dead.”
Family and friends of Gavrilis were pleased with the ruling but upset over the hearing.
“It should never have happened,” said Gerda Gavrilis, Arlene’s mother. “Nobody should have to go through what we went through.”
Katie Kearns would have been Arlene’s maid of honor.
“I’m upset that (Kraft) was doing this for himself,” she said. “He doesn’t sympathize with the fact that we will never be able to speak with Arlene again.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
