Dettloff apologizes to victims’ families

Friday, May 24, 2002 | 11:14 a.m.

A man convicted of leaving the scene of a fatal accident in which three people were killed apologized to their family members this morning during a sentencing hearing in District Judge Joseph Bonaventure's courtroom.

Although family members contend Mitchell Dettloff, 36, caused the accident, Dettloff was convicted in March of three counts of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. His attorneys, Karen Winckler and Richard Wright, contend that such a verdict means the jury did not find that he caused the crash.

Dettloff, shackled, wearing blue jail fatigues, orange tennis shoes, broke down during the hearing. Speaking to the court, he turned to address the family members in the courtroom.

"This terrible accident affected the lives of a lot of people in this courtroom," Dettloff said. "I am sorry for the role I played. I apologize. I hope you will forgive me for the accident ... if there's anything I could do to change this, I would."

Family members of the victims Holly Barton, 33, Benjamin Barton, 8, and Brian Cooper, 30, spoke to the court after Bonaventure ruled against a motion that would have barred them from speaking.

James Barton, Holly's husband who was injured in the crash, said Dettloff was lying.

"I sit here today in disbelief," he said. "I still have a hard time believing I'm here. I sit here with a person who is still in denial. You know and I know (what happened)."

He said he couldn't believe Dettloff left the scene.

"As my wife and son lay dead on the freeway, you drive away," Barton said. "As you sleep like a baby I'm lying injured on the freeway, and you ask for mercy. How can I give you mercy?"

Barton, a plumber who is raising his three surviving children and a nephew, recounted being hit and the injuries and pain he suffered, calling Dettloff's actions and court motions "beyond my comprehension."

"Whatever the judge does today is temporary," Barton said. "Your actions are eternal."

The attorneys argued over how much time Dettloff should get after the judge received a sentencing report arguing for a stiff sentence.

Dettloff's attorney, Richard Wright, said he was "shocked at the recommendation" of 12 years in prison and up to 30 years total.

He argued for "proportionality and comparability" in the sentencing.

Wright said the report "flies in the face of the goals of sentencing in Nevada."

Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker said that Dettloff should be "judged by his deeds, by what he has done, and not by what he said throughout the trial."

He said Dettloff hid out for days after the accident, trying to avoid being caught.

"He was running that night and as he sits here today he is still running ... he is spiritually fleeing," Booker said. "This man needs to go to prison and he needs to go there for a long time."

In a hearing that ran through much of the morning, Bonaventure was set to decide whether Dettloff should serve three terms of two-to-15 years concurrently or consecutively for leaving the scene.

Prosecutors alleged that, after Dettloff merged onto U.S. 95 from Ann Road, he drifted right, over-corrected and veered left into a Ford F-250 pickup carrying James Barton and his family. Barton's vehicle then went across the dirt median and struck Brian Cooper's vehicle head-on.

Dettloff told jurors that after his vehicle collided with Barton's he left the scene because he but did not see anyone pulled over and assumed that Barton had left. He had no idea about the second collision involving the Bartons and Cooper, Dettloff said.

"What makes sense is Mr. Dettloff, at that time, didn't know about the accident, he didn't know of the carnage left behind," Wright said in his closing arguments, noting that if his client indeed was trying to avoid capture he would not have returned to the scene that night.

According to court testimony, Dettlofff, a former restaurant manager, drove away, picked up his children and drove back through the accident scene 15 to 20 minutes later in his damaged vehicle.

Booker told the jurors that while Dettloff left the scene, a dozen other people, some of whom weren't involved in the accident, remained. Booker said Dettloff left because he knew he had caused the crash and did not want to accept responsibility.

Dettloff was arrested two days after the crash and charged with four counts each of leaving the scene of an accident, three counts of involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving.

Jurors could not find that Dettloff acted "willfully and wantonly" to convict him of reckless driving, which carries a one-to-six-year sentence. Nor could they find him "criminally negligent" to convict him of involuntary manslaughter, which is punishable by a one-to-four-year prison term.