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Elko District Judge Nancy Porter threw out a plea bargain and then threw the book at an Ibapah man, Monday, whose drunk driving caused the death of his own brother two years ago just south of Wendover.
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Porter sentenced Kevin Naranjo, 24, to the maximum 12 years in prison recommended by the Department of Parole and Probation rather than the two to five year sentence his Attorney, Sherb MacFarlan, and the District Attorney’s office worked out in a bargain for Naranjo’s guilty plea.
Porter justified her relatively harsh sentence because Naranjo was later arrested and pled guilty to another DUI charge and said that it was her duty to protect the citizens of Nevada.
In tearful pleas to the judge his parents Ed and Phyllis Naranjo suggested that it was not as simple as that. Naranjo was suicidal they said in the days and weeks after the fatal accident that claimed his older brother’s life. The assertion was verified by his Attorney MacFarlan who told the court that after meeting Kevin a year ago he thought the young man was suicidal and had some doubt whether he would make it to the sentencing.
Neither Naranjo, his Attorney or his parents made mention of unusual year long delay between the fatal accident and his arrest.
“Neither we or Kevin had any idea that he had been charged or that a warrant had been issued,” said Ed Naranjo in an interview Wednesday. “Until he was arrested last year in Salt Lake City he had no contact from the District Attorney or the court, not a letter not a phone call nothing.”
Ed Naranjo is the tribal Chairman of the Goshute Band in Ibapah, Utah/Nevada.
According to a law enforcement source who spoke on the condition of anonymity while not unheard of it is unusual. In a case like this more than 90 percent of the evidence at the time on the scene. The driver is tested for drunkenness, statements are take and the arrest is made, even if the driver has to go to the hospital. Sometimes police will wait until after the driver is released from medical care but usually no one waits more than a month let alone a year to make the charge.
Naranjo had a .134 percent blood-alcohol level and marijuana in his system after the crash that happened 20 miles south of West Wendover on U.S. Highway 93, July 26 2010.
The crash killed Naranjo’s older brother, Alex Naranjo, and injured Jessica Le Comte. All three occupants were ejected from the car.
The complaint against Naranjo wasn’t filed until March 7, 2011. He was arrested in Salt Lake City on June 7, 2011.
The more than eight month lapse between the fatal accident and the formal filing of charges coupled the DA’s office readiness to deal for much less time than the maximum sentence could suggest that the case against Naranjo may have had some holes or was weak enough not to guarantee a guilty verdict should it have gone to trial.
“Kevin pled guilty for what we thought would be a two to five year sentence,” the elder Naranjo explained. “It was a pretty big shock for us when the judge disallowed the deal and gave him the 12 year maximum.”
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Although commonly used plea bargains are not set in stone and judges are under no obligation to abide by them.
Porter’s predecessor Mike Memeo for example was famous or notorious for not only throwing out plea bargains but also imposing harsher sentences than recommended by Parole and Probation earning the nick name ‘Maximum Mike’.
“Kevin, my wife and I are still in a state of shock over the sentence,” the elder Naranjo said.
Kevin Naranjo must serve at least two and a half years before he is eligible for parole and given the 12 year maximum it is considered unlikely that he will be paroled at his first hearing.
