WOODLAND — In a courtroom filled with members of his family and that of his victim, a Woodland man received a four-year, eight-month state prison sentence Tuesday for his role as the driver in a fatal hit-and-run collision.
“It’s an unfortunate accident that I’ve got to face, and I’m here to face it,” Raymond Contreras, 35, told members of Richard Tafoya’s family shortly before learning his fate in Yolo Superior Court. “I’m very sorry for everything, for what you guys have got to go through.”
But for Tafoya’s loved ones — many of whom are longtime acquaintances of Contreras and his family — it was much too little, far too late.
“How could you be so cold-hearted to leave somebody in the street and take off?” Karrie Younger, Tafoya’s former girlfriend, said of the Nov. 12, 2015, collision that instantly killed the 65-year-old victim as he walked his pet dog Heidi on Mariposa Street.
Police said Contreras fled the scene and engaged in a conspiracy with his girlfriend, who also was in the vehicle, and her father to have the crash damage repaired before anyone could connect it to the crime.
“Who does that? Only a coward,” Younger said during her victim impact statement in Judge Paul Richardson’s courtroom. “You had zero respect for Richard’s family, no remorse.”
“I will despise you for the rest of my life,” added Christina Jones, Tafoya’s sister. “The only thing you are sorry for is that you got caught.”
Contreras had been days away from going to trial when he pleaded guilty to each of the charges he faced: hit and run causing injury or death, conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor and destroying or concealing evidence.
His girlfriend Norma Gentry, whose Dodge Ram pickup Contreras drove that night, and her father Roberto Sanchez, who claimed to his auto-insurance company that he had been driving the truck and struck a milk crate, also admitted to their roles in the cover-up.
They are due for sentencing on Oct. 26.
Contreras faced anywhere from probation to five years in prison for his actions. At a prior court hearing, Deputy District Attorney Jay Linden presented evidence regarding a 2005 crime in which Contreras, who was driving drunk, struck a street sign and fled the scene.
Richardson said that although Contreras performed well on probation following that conviction, it would be inappropriate to grant him similar leniency a second time around.
“The court does believe that this crime involved a measure of callousness,” Richardson said, citing Contreras’ efforts to conceal his involvement. He also noted that while Contreras claimed he didn’t know he had hit a person on Mariposa Street, evidence showed his passenger, Gentry, was aware of that fact.
“If she was, I do not find in any way how the driver of that vehicle could not have been aware of it,” the judge added.
With that, Richardson sentenced Contreras to four years in prison for the hit-and-run charge, plus a consecutive eight months for the conspiracy count. A six-month term for concealing evidence will be served concurrently.
Court bailiffs immediately remanded Contreras into custody.
“I know everyone in this courtroom has been torn by this,” Richardson told the audience. “I hope that in some way, regardless of what side you’re on, you can find some peace at this point.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene