The driver of a dump truck who killed one teen and injured another young man in a crash west of Longmont was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison.
Sean Daniel Souders, 55, was convicted on charges of vehicular homicide, third-degree assault and reckless driving by a Boulder County jury in May.
Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill sentenced Souders to 12 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections, the maximum allowed on the vehicular homicide charge.
Souders was sentenced to two years in jail on the third-degree assault count that will run concurrent to the prison sentence. The reckless driving count merged with the vehicular homicide charge.
“He is a danger to the community when he is on the road,” Mulvahill said of Souders. “Objectively, he is a danger.”
Colorado State Patrol investigators say that on July 24, 2020, Souders was driving a white Kenworth dump truck that crashed into a convertible in the 9800 block of North 51st Street and then crashed into a house near the intersection of North 51st Street and Nelson Road.
The driver of the convertible, Kelsey Skokan, 17, died as a result of the crash. A 22-year-old passenger in the convertible, Ian Fleming, was also injured in the crash. The home that the truck crashed into belonged to the Skokan family.
Mulvahill recounted a story about a time early in his career when as a prosecutor, he told a judge he was about to present the facts of the most horrific traffic case he had ever seen. Mulvahill said the judge told him she had seen worse, and warned him there would be much worse cases in his future if he stayed in the legal system.
“This case is one of those cases that she was talking about,” Mulvahill said. “I know that Mr. Souders didn’t bear any malice, I know he wasn’t trying to hurt anybody that day. … But on the other side I have a family that has been absolutely devastated.
“Whatever sentence I impose today is not going to fully account for the fact that the defendant didn’t mean to hurt anybody, it’s also not going to fill the hole in the Skokan family.”
‘It’s so hard to not have him with me’
Eric Skokan, Kelsey’s father, told the court his family’s home was once a place “filled with joy and laughter.” Now, everything in it reminds him of the day he lost his son.
“Every one of those things, and they’re everywhere, they send me down this thought path every single time, to Kelsey crushed and dying in my arms,” he said. “It’s so hard to do anything, to walk around the house, at work, to have conversations without going down that path again and reliving Kelsey being killed. It’s like living in a prison.”
Eric Skokan once referred to his son in the past tense, but from that point on in his comments to Mulvahill made sure to refer to Kelsey in the present tense.
“He’s with me here,” Eric Skokan said, touching his heart. “But it’s so hard to not have him with me. At the farm, at work.”
Souders, in his comments to the court, apologized for his actions.
“I realize that the rest of their lives are going to be greatly and immensely impacted by my behavior,” Souders said. “I would never in a million years want to witness and be a part of, let alone be the cause of, something like this.”
Souders added, “It was a direct result of my actions, and I wish I could take that pain away. … I just don’t think I can say sorry enough, I just don’t know how.”
‘The system failed’
In asking for the maximum sentence, prosecutors noted Souders had a lengthy criminal history including 35 driving convictions and nine instances in which his license was suspended. One of those was for speeding while Souders was on bond after the fatal crash.
Souders was also on parole in a Larimer County menacing case at the time of the crash.
“This case, as vehicular homicides are, is incredibly tragic, and in this case most egregious and most horrific,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said.
Dougherty said drivers must enter into a “social contract,” to obey the laws of the road in order to keep the community safe.
“That’s the trust that individuals place in one another when they get out on the roads every day,” Dougherty said. “This man has broken that social contract over, and over, and over again.”
Kelsey’s mother, Jill Skokan, asked Mulvahill to make sure Souders never drives again. She also wondered why Souders was even driving on the day he killed her son given his abysmal driving record.
“What we struggle with, what I don’t understand, is how a man with his record was allowed another chance,” she said. “I don’t understand why more wasn’t done to keep the community safe.”
Dougherty agreed with the Skokan family that Souders should have not been driving that day.
“She’s absolutely right to say the system failed before July 24, 2020,” Dougherty said. “The system has the opportunity to do the right thing here.”
Mulvahill also noted, “How somebody with that driving record can still be out driving a heavy truck with a commercial driver’s license, it’s beyond me.”
But Mulvahill also said that as a judge, he had no control over Souders’ driver’s license, as driving privileges are handled by the Division of Motor Vehicles.
“I have a lot of power and a lot of authority, that’s above my pay grade unfortunately,” Mulvahill said. “It’s beyond my control, and I recognize that’s a very frustrating answer.”
But Mulvahill said by imposing a lengthy sentence, he could at least keep Souders from getting behind the wheel for at least some period of time.
“I can control how long I can physically keep him off the road with or without a license, and that is something I am taking into consideration,” Mulvahill said.
