Driver who killed Loaves & Fishes volunteer gets prison

July 13th, 2011 Indiana Lalor Leave a comment Go to comments

Jeffrey Crayton Yelverton stuck to his story Friday, the same one he told police the day he ran over a homeless Loaves & Fishes volunteer and left him in the street to die a miserable death that took 55 days in coming.

“Panic just took over,” Yelverton told Sacramento Superior Court Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan. “I took the wrong turn. These gentlemen were in the road yelling and screaming at me. I did not intend to hurt anyone. Fear took over, I guess. The whole event is a blur. I didn’t know what to do. I truly thought they would get out of the way.”

In sentencing Yelverton to six years and eight months in prison, the judge gave voice to the unspoken message delivered by the jurors who last month convicted Yelverton of voluntary manslaughter and hit-and-run in the death of Thomas William “Cowboy Bill” Deollos.

Meegan said the jury found, and she agreed, that Yelverton’s story was a lie.

“The jury rejected the defendant’s version of the facts, as does the court, based on evidence presented in this trial,” Meegan said from the bench. “It further finds that he lied to cover up his own crime.”

Yelverton, the former $92,000-a-year food services director for the Folsom Cordova Unified School District, had been playing in a Sunday poker tournament March 28, 2010, at the Capital Casino on 16th Street. He said he was going to pick up his kids at a midtown church when he tried to cut across the warehouse district but got blocked by the North C Street cul-de-sac in front of Friendship Park, in the Loaves & Fishes homeless services complex.

He told police that when he turned his car around, three men approached him. He said he thought one had a gun and that they wanted to rob him. The Loaves & Fishes workers testified Yelverton was speeding, that he’d been zipping through the neighborhood several Sundays in a row, and they wanted to slow him down.

Anguish marked the statements of the Deollos family at Friday’s sentencing.

The relatives of the 45-year-old victim told the court how he survived for 55 days in in the UC Davis Medical Center with portions of his skull removed, the open gashes on his sides left unsutured, his shatterd lower leg held together with pins because the nature of his head injuries prevented doctors from operating.

Deollos’ young cousin, Zaneta Ameriah Delgado, summed up the misery of the family’s experience while they watched his life wither into death.

“My cousin laid there in the hospital, helplessly,” Delgado said, reading a statement she wrote in the minutes before Friday’s sentencing.

“My cousin laid there dying. My cousin laid there struggling to breathe. He had forgotten those he loved due to the condition of this painful accident. As he was wasting away, physically, many around him were wasting away within.”

Delgado spoke of the “scar we all carry in the depth of our heart” and the “pain within the chambers of my soul.”

“The sound of a heartbeat should be the sound of life,” she said. “But it is the sound of death to so many of us as a family.”

On Friday, in front of the judge, Yelverton begged for mercy. He said he was sorry for what he did.

“The way I reacted was probably inappropriate,” he said. If he could, Yelverton said he’d trade places with the dead man. “I did not mean to harm anyone,” he said.

His face covered by several days of stubbled growth, his graying hair styled into a rat-tail cut, Yelverton said “I’m not a threat to society.”

Yelverton said he’s a “true believer in the Holy Trinity,” that a friend gave him a Bible when he was jailed after his conviction. He said his wife is dyslexic, “functionally illiterate,” “on the verge of a mental breakdown.”

He said his 11-year-old daughter has Down syndrome and that he needs to be home to provide for them.

“I understand I have to pay for my sins, but I ask that the court doesn’t punish me for a long period of time,” Yelverton said.

The judge acknowledged the Beaufort, S.C., native has no criminal record. But she said there was no way he’d get off with probation and no prison time, especially in light of the grief expressed by the Deollos relatives.

“This was not just a loss of life,” Meegan said. “This was a life stolen from them. You stole a life. You took that life. Your act was irrevocable.

“You ask here that the court exercise mercy for you,” the judge continued. “But as you yourself acknowledge, the truth of the matter is, your crime has consequences, dire consequences, for taking the life of Mr. Deollos, the pain and suffering you caused his family, and the ripple effects this will have on your own family.”

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