A 29-year-old man who killed two people while driving high on methamphetamine was sentenced Monday to 158 years in prison.
William Lloyd Jokay-Szilagji killed Jacob Bowen, 26, and Jesse Edmonds, 30, in May 2019 when he ran a red light at Alameda and Kipling parkways in Lakewood. Jokay-Szilagji was driving 105 miles per hour and without headlights when he struck the car being driven by Bowen, according to prior reports. Two women who were passengers in Jokay-Szilagji’s car car were seriously injured. Bowen and Edmonds had traveled to Colorado for a vacation when the accident happened, a news release from the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office said.
Minutes before the crash, two Lakewood Police Department agents had tried to stop Jokay-Szilagji, who was driving a stolen Toyota 4-Runner, outside a condominium complex. Jokay-Szilagji fled, ramming a police cruiser and injuring an officer in his escape. He drove through a wooden fence and through a pedestrian area to get away, the news release said.
In February, a Jefferson County jury convicted Jokay-Szilagji of 24 counts, including two counts of vehicular homicide – driving under the influence, two counts of vehicular homicide – reckless, vehicular eluding causing death and four courts of first-degree assault – extreme indifference. aggravated motor vehicle theft and possession of a controlled substance.
