JEFFERSON COUNTY — An Aurora man who repeatedly slapped the back of his 17-year-old son’s head, egging him on to drive faster in the moments before a head-on collision, has been sentenced to 36 years in prison.
“This may be the first time in Colorado where we obtained a conviction of vehicular assault when the defendant was not actually behind the wheel,” said Scott Storey, Jefferson County district attorney.
The man, Kenneth Leon Childress, was on probation for an alcohol-related offense and was seated in the back seat of a car driven by his son, Brett Lafferty.
Prosecutors said that Childress had provided alcohol to Lafferty. Lafferty’s 19-year-old girlfriend was a passenger in the front seat, and Childress was in the back seat with a 3-year-old boy.
Lafferty was driving the group about midnight on Nov. 22, 2007.
Witnesses told investigators they saw Lafferty running red lights and racing down the road before slamming into a Jeep head-on.
The 3-year-old was not restrained and was seriously injured.
Childress was found guilty by a jury of reckless child abuse, vehicular assault, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, reckless endangerment and reckless driving.
Howard Pankratz, The Denver Post
