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19-year-old sentenced in '04 triple fatality
Ainslee S.Wittig/Arizona Range News
More than two and a half years after a vehicle accident that killed a 47-year-old Willcox woman and two of her grandchildren, Kellen Patterson, 19, was sentenced to six months in the county jail for three counts of negligent homicide.
Patterson, of Willcox, also received four years probation in the sentencing, held Tuesday, Aug. 15, in Judge Stephen Desens division of Cochise County Superior Court. Patterson, who originally pleaded not guilty, changed his plea to guilty of three counts of negligent homicide in February, said Vince Festa, Cochise County deputy attorney.
"It was a pretty emotional hearing," Festa said. "There was a lot of crying going on, on both sides."
"Our prayers have always been with the Coffmans and Millers," said Kellen's father, Mike Patterson, Thursday. "I am proud of my son for standing up and taking responsibility for his actions."
Patterson, 17 at the time of the accident, ran a stop sign at Hamilton and Old Stewart roads on Friday, Jan. 9, 2004. The Chevy pickup truck he was driving hit Geraldine Coffman's Geo Metro, killing her and two of her grandchildren, Christopher and Joseph Kingman, ages 1 and 4.
County sheriff's deputies' interviews with Patterson and his brother Koby, then 16, who was a passenger in the vehicle, indicated that Kellen did not see the other vehicle coming, but apparently consciously disregarded the stop sign, said the sheriff's department report.
Festa said he received emails from Willcox residents asking why Patterson was charged with negligent homicide and Thomas Tunks, another Willcox resident who had an accident at the same intersection almost exactly three years earlier (Jan. 10, 2001), killing two people, was not.
"In these two accidents, the results were the same and on paper it looks the same, but there is a distinction. In Patterson's case, they saw the dust on the road, but perceived it as just blowing dust. Then, he made a conscious effort that he wasn't going to stop at the stop sign. It wasn't ordinary negligence, it was criminal negligence.
"The evidence in Tunks' case was that he was distracted by the radio and missed the stop sign. We could not prove criminal negligence. It was just simple negligence. That's the standard we try to apply," Festa said.
The sentence for each count of negligent homicide ranges from a maximum of 3.75 years in prison on each count to a minimum of probation, Festa said.
The judge took into consideration the aggravating and mitigating circumstances when sentencing Patterson, he said. "An aggravating circumstance was that it caused emotional harm to the family members of the victims. Mitigating circumstances were that Kellen was only 17 1/2, not an adult and not a long driving history, and that he did not intend or know that this was going to happen." Festa said Desens would likely "make grief counseling a part of the probation to help him come to grips with this."
Geraldine's husband, Bob Coffman, declined comment on Friday.
The boys' father, Albert Miller did not return calls and could not be contacted for comment.
More than two and a half years after a vehicle accident that killed a 47-year-old Willcox woman and two of her grandchildren, Kellen Patterson, 19, was sentenced to six months in the county jail for three counts of negligent homicide.
Patterson, of Willcox, also received four years probation in the sentencing, held Tuesday, Aug. 15, in Judge Stephen Desens division of Cochise County Superior Court. Patterson, who originally pleaded not guilty, changed his plea to guilty of three counts of negligent homicide in February, said Vince Festa, Cochise County deputy attorney.
"It was a pretty emotional hearing," Festa said. "There was a lot of crying going on, on both sides."
"Our prayers have always been with the Coffmans and Millers," said Kellen's father, Mike Patterson, Thursday. "I am proud of my son for standing up and taking responsibility for his actions."
Patterson, 17 at the time of the accident, ran a stop sign at Hamilton and Old Stewart roads on Friday, Jan. 9, 2004. The Chevy pickup truck he was driving hit Geraldine Coffman's Geo Metro, killing her and two of her grandchildren, Christopher and Joseph Kingman, ages 1 and 4.
County sheriff's deputies' interviews with Patterson and his brother Koby, then 16, who was a passenger in the vehicle, indicated that Kellen did not see the other vehicle coming, but apparently consciously disregarded the stop sign, said the sheriff's department report.
Festa said he received emails from Willcox residents asking why Patterson was charged with negligent homicide and Thomas Tunks, another Willcox resident who had an accident at the same intersection almost exactly three years earlier (Jan. 10, 2001), killing two people, was not.
"In these two accidents, the results were the same and on paper it looks the same, but there is a distinction. In Patterson's case, they saw the dust on the road, but perceived it as just blowing dust. Then, he made a conscious effort that he wasn't going to stop at the stop sign. It wasn't ordinary negligence, it was criminal negligence.
"The evidence in Tunks' case was that he was distracted by the radio and missed the stop sign. We could not prove criminal negligence. It was just simple negligence. That's the standard we try to apply," Festa said.
The sentence for each count of negligent homicide ranges from a maximum of 3.75 years in prison on each count to a minimum of probation, Festa said.
The judge took into consideration the aggravating and mitigating circumstances when sentencing Patterson, he said. "An aggravating circumstance was that it caused emotional harm to the family members of the victims. Mitigating circumstances were that Kellen was only 17 1/2, not an adult and not a long driving history, and that he did not intend or know that this was going to happen." Festa said Desens would likely "make grief counseling a part of the probation to help him come to grips with this."
Geraldine's husband, Bob Coffman, declined comment on Friday.
The boys' father, Albert Miller did not return calls and could not be contacted for comment.
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