Man sentenced to prison in DUI crash that killed 2 pedestrians
Parents to adult daughters from previous relationships, the couple was living a blossoming love story when an impaired driver fatally injured them in a New Year’s Day crash a year ago.
That fateful afternoon, Tracy Sundberg, 51, and Randall Ray, 68, were walking on a sidewalk when they were struck by an SUV driven by Fernando Reyes.
Trying to escape a crash, Reyes, 22, ran a red light and hit a second vehicle before careening into the victims, according to North Las Vegas police.
“I didn’t get to know my dad and Tracy together,” Lynn Ray told District Court Judge Carli Kierny on Wednesday before the judge ordered Reyes to serve between 16 to 40 years in prison.
A jury in November convicted Reyes on 12 charges, including reckless and impaired driving resulting in death.
A tearful Lynn Ray recalled that the Christmas before the tragedy, Sundberg had made and gifted scrapbooks with Ray’s mother’s recipes and handwritten notes to members of Ray’s family.
“I cherished it from the moment I got it, and I cherish it now,” said Lynn Ray, also mentioning photos Sundberg would send her that showed the couple “smiling, joking, laughing and enjoying their lives together.”
She said her father was a call away when his daughters needed help or advice.
“He would walk us through anything and everything,” she said.
Speeding, impaired
Police said that after the fatal crash at North Aliante Parkway and Nature Park Drive, Reyes tried to run but was tackled by a witness who held him down until officers arrived.
Police determined Reyes was speeding at 55 mph in a 35 mph zone a half-second before the crash, his arrest report said.
Clark County Deputy District Attorney Yu Meng on Wednesday asked Kierny to hand down the maximum sentence, which would have seen Reyes serve up to 80 years in prison.
The prosecutor said Reyes had five times the legal amount of marijuana in his system allowed to drive, as well as Xanax. Meng added that the suspect had taken time to retrieve a backpack full of marijuana products, neglecting the victims.
Reyes showed “full disregard for human life and basic responsibility and frankly, a complete lack of humanity,” Meng said. “Don’t tell me the defendant didn’t know what he was doing, your honor.”
Reyes turned to the families, saying that he thinks about the victims every day and that he regrets past choices, including putting them through a trial.
‘Simple man with a big heart’ and ‘caretaker at heart’
Ray’s other daughter, Jennifer Eveland, said her father was incredible and caring.
“Golf, football and work — it didn’t take much to make Randy happy,” she said. “He was a simple man with a big heart.”
Eveland said she spoke by phone with her critically injured father, who was rushed to University Medical Center before he died.
His last words to her: “I love you, Jenn; call Tracy.”
“Still till this day, I can hear his voice telling me those exact words,” Eveland said. “As much as I hold on to that moment, it also haunts me.”
Robyn Jones said her sister was a “caretaker at heart,” a nurse who would care for hospice patients.
“She’s the kind of person who would drop everything to help,” Jones said. “She was beautiful, smart and kind.”
Jones said she regrets not calling her on the afternoon she died and possibly distracting her a few seconds that would’ve delayed her being in Reyes’ path.
“I lost my mom at 24, my sister lost her at 21,” said Gabrielle Sundberg, who noted that her mother was just restarting her life after her children had grown up and moved out of the house.
She said her mother “was extravagant with everything,” including holiday decorations and tasty dishes she would prepare for her daughters. Tracy Sundberg was also a parent figure to her daughters’ friends.
“It breaks my heart because there’s nothing I can do to fix this pain for my sister as well as mine,” Jones added.
Her sister, Victoria Sundberg, told the court about having to return to her childhood home only to clear it out before it was sold. The grieving daughters had to take down her mother’s 10 Christmas trees “varying in sizes,” she said.
Victoria Sundberg spoke about a difficult, depressing year, which saw her graduate from college, and commemorate birthdays and holidays without her mother.
“She won’t be around to see who I’ve become,” she said. “There’s so much I still need my mom for — I’m only 22 now.”
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.