A 40-year imprisonment awaits for the methamphetamine-influenced truck driver who hit and killed five bicyclists in Nevada last December.
The suspect, 45-year-old Jordan Barson, appeared in the Eighth Judicial Court in Clark County on Wednesday. A report by the Associated Press, KVVU, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal said he was sentenced to 16 to 40 years behind bars.
Online court records show that Barson, in April, has already pleaded guilty to a couple of allegations of DUI resulting in death.
According to a report by the New York Times citing Clark County District Attorney Steven Worfson, the suspect will be qualified to parole after a 16-year imprisonment.
“The price to be paid must be of the highest nature because the cost could not be greater than in a case like this,” the Review-Journal cites Chief Deputy District Attorney Thomas Moskal, who spoke before the sentence was handed down by District Judge Bita Yeager.
“The wounds inflicted by Mr. Barson will at best be mental and emotional scars as noticeable on these victims as if the scars were on their face when they looked in the mirror,” he said. “At worst, the wounds will forever remain open and bleeding.”
About 20 cyclists were traversing the Nipton Loop on U.S. Highway 95, just like what they did in the past years, in the morning of December 20, 2020, according to Review-Journal reports.
Retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer Michael Anderson, in an interview with Review-Journal, said seven of the cyclists drove behind the support vehicle.
Barson, who was driving a truck, went behind the support vehicle.
“Basically, the speed of the box truck, when it hit the riders that were behind the SAG vehicle, basically pinned them between the truck and the vehicle,” as reported by KSNV News 3, citing Anderson.
The victims were identified as Erin Ray, Gerrard Nieva, Michael Murray, Aksoy Ahmet, and Tom Trauger.
