Nissan 370Z Forum - View Single Post

DeLRo · 08-24-2010, 02:49 PM

I know most of everyone on here is pretty responsible, but just a little reminder for those times when we feel the need for speed. Below is a story of a friend of mine that was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Two San Jose men receive maximum sentences in street racing death - San Jose Mercury News

Quote:

Two San Jose men receive maximum sentences in street racing death
Posted: 08/20/2010 07:21:46 PM PDT

Two San Jose men received maximum sentences Friday for a brief street race on a suburban street that caused the death of 20-year-old Alyson Snow when one of the men smashed into the rear of her Volkswagen Jetta.

Emmanuel Pourmand, 22, was sentenced to 9 years in prison by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Philip P. Pennypacker, who said both men showed a lack of empathy. The judge sentenced 19-year-old Joseph Inocencio, who instigated the race, to six years and eight months in prison.

"I think the members of this community have the right to expect to go to a market and not be killed by a road race," Pennypacker said, adding it was also important to send a message that "if you live in Santa Clara County and decide to race on the streets, you will receive the maximum sentence allowed."

Deputy District Attorney Angela Bernhard said after the hearing that "it was the right sentence."

Both men pleaded no contest in June to vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving charges.

Sentencing followed two hours of emotional appeals from Snow's distraught family and friends for the maximum sentences. Attorneys for the two men kept their appeals to about 15 minutes. Every seat in the courtroom was taken and more than two dozen people wore "Aly's Army" T-shirts.

"I am told by your attorneys that you have remorse, but I don't see it," Snow's mother, Charlene Lennon, said to the two defendants. Until she spoke, both men had kept
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their heads down but raised them when Lennon said, "I'm asking you to show respect and look at me."

On the night of Oct. 22, Snow and her good friend, Daniel Hendricks, were on their way home after running out to buy some milk and cookies. They were driving down Branham Lane when the two men came speeding up on either side of Snow and Hendricks.

"We never saw them coming," Hendricks said just before the sentencing hearing. "We had no warning. The next thing is a loud explosion and then her screaming."

"Aly was my best friend and one of the most positive people I've ever met in my entire life," Hendricks told the packed courtroom. Addressing the two defendants, he said, "you took away my best friend and for what? "... Never forget how many lives you changed that night because of your decision."

The two men did not know each other. Inocencio was leaving a 7-Eleven store on Pearl Avenue when he spotted Pourmand speeding in a "very fast" Nissan 350Z. Inocencio told police he thought he could catch up to the Nissan and "began chasing it in his BMW" up Pearl and onto Branham Lane.

It was his mother's BMW and witnesses heard Inocencio say after the crash "Oh my god, oh my god. It's my mom's car, it's my mom's car."

At the moment of impact, the investigation revealed that Pourmand's orange Nissan 350Z was going a minimum of 74 mph, according to court records. Inocencio's speed was calculated between 85 and 92 mph at the beginning of the collision sequence. Twenty seconds into the race, Pourmand lost control of his car and smashed into Snow's Jetta. Then Inocencio lost control and crashed.

According to court records, Pourmand claimed he was driving 40 mph, which he believed to be "under the speed limit" on Branham Lane, to a friend's house to watch a movie. He denied to officers that he was speeding and said he never races. He later claimed that Snow's death was her own fault.

"Aly did nothing wrong," her godmother, Julie Grandee said. "Both of you men broke the law."

Snow, who had been working as a waitress to raise money for college, had a bright future, her friends and family said.

Now, "the only way I can see my best friend is by dropping by her grave and seeing her name etched in stone," said her friend, Gabrielle Solomon.

"Aly had a motto she lived by, 'live, laugh, love.' We are not just Aly's family and friends. We are Aly's Army."