by F.T. Norton
Appeal Staff Writer
For the next year, a Dayton man must spend his weekends in jail for his part in a 2006 high-speed chase that ended in a fatal wreck on Six Mile Canyon Road, which killed Robert De La O.
District Judge Todd Russell gave Randy Boyd, 23, a suspended prison sentence of 12-48 months, ordered Boyd to serve the next 52 weekends in the county jail, and put him on five years' probation.
Boyd pleaded guilty to felony reckless driving causing death or serious injury in December.
According to Storey County investigators, on Dec. 9. 2007, Boyd and friend Daren Vandenberg, 23, got into a physical dispute with De La O, 16; Sam Villa, 17; Jose Elizondo Jr., 18; and David Flores, 17; at the Occidental Mini Mart in Dayton before allegedly chasing De La O's Lincoln Continental up Six Mile Canyon Road.
The chase ended when the Lincoln struck a guardrail and overturned. De La O was pronounced dead at the scene.
Boyd and Vandenberg fled, as did an injured Villa and Flores. Elizondo had to be cut from the wreck.
Vandenberg pleaded guilty to a charge of misdemeanor obstructing or delaying an investigation.
He was sentenced to 96 hours of community service, a suspended sentence of 30 days in jail, one year probation and $1,132 in fines and court fees.
Ken Stover, Boyd's attorney, said 52 weekends of not seeing his children will remind him 52 times over what he had done, and said those in the victim's car had gang connections and the victim may have been being initiated into the gang by picking a fight with Boyd and Vandenberg.
He said he expressed concern to the judge that the 18th Street gang was waiting for Boyd in prison.
"At least one or two people in the car are members of the 18th Street gang," he said. "He (De La O) may not have been a member, but they were trying to recruit people to join their gang."
Stover described the gang as being from Los Angeles and being one of the most violent gangs in the Western U.S.
"The 18th Street gang is alive and well in Dayton and Carson City," he said.
• Reporter Karen Woodmansee contributed to this report. Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.