A 25-year-old man was sentenced to one year in jail on Friday for a 2022 crash that killed four teenagers and injured four others in Commerce City.
Brandon Howey was found guilty of four counts of careless driving resulting in death and four counts of careless driving resulting in injury, all traffic offenses, by an Adams County jury in November.
He was initially charged with vehicular homicide and vehicular assault in the case, but the jury convicted him on lesser charges. He received the maximum sentence possible under Colorado law.
Howey was driving 92 miles per hour on U.S. 85 the night of Feb. 25, 2022, when he ran a red light at East 112th Avenue and hit an SUV that was turning left.
The crash killed Jamie Withers, 15; Michael Burkhard, 15; Johnathan Bledsoe, 16; and Katelyn Sweeney, 16, and left four other teenagers with serious injuries.
District Attorney Brian Mason said he respected the jury’s decision, but the sentence was “a tough pill to swallow.”
“Cases like this are burned into our memories. The law enforcement officers who responded to this scene and my team who prosecuted this case will never forget this tragedy and will never forget the horror of the crime scene and the lives that were lost,” Mason said.
Friends and family members of the victims spoke during the hearing about the crash’s devastating impact on their lives.
Bailey Burkhard was 14 years old when her older brother, Michael, was killed in the crash. He brought joy and light to his family’s life and always stood up for what was right, she said.
“For everyone else, the accident happened three years ago and they moved on. But for me and my parents, it feels like time has stopped,” she said. “No one should ever have to go through what I did at that age.”
Howey also spoke at the hearing and told Adams County District Court Judge Jeffrey Ruff that he would accept whatever consequences the court deemed necessary.
“I hope that you can see I am truly remorseful for the part I played in this tragic event, but I hope to be given a chance to live a life that has meaning and value to the community at large,” he said.
Before announcing the sentence, Ruff acknowledged nothing he did could give the families back what they lost and encouraged them to continue telling stories to carry forward their memories.
“They were loved and they loved. They were leaders. They had so much left to give, so much more than the short amount of time that they were here,” he said.
