PORT ANGELES — J.J. Brewer and Kathy Roberts planned to get married, but they wanted their two young daughters to be old enough to remember spreading the flowers down the aisle.
Those plans shared by the young couple were destroyed in August 2005, Roberts said Tuesday during the sentencing hearing for Michael John Jones, 49.
“We were going to grow old together,” Roberts said, holding back tears.
Jones received a five-year prison sentence.
He will be transferred to the custody of the state Department of Corrections later this week.
Pleaded guilty
Jones pleaded guilty earlier this month to three counts of vehicular homicide stemming from an Aug. 2, 2005, crash that killed Ian Rolley, 45, his son, Jeremy Rolley, 21, and his friend, J.J. Brewer, 21.
Jones’ station wagon drifted across the U.S. Highway 101 centerline and the car’s front end clipped the front of a pickup truck driven by Ian Rolley.
The pickup truck containing the three men then rolled into oncoming traffic and was hit by a cargo truck.
All three men were declared dead at the scene.
A State Patrol toxicology report said that Jones had in his system marijuana and multiple prescription drugs, including methadone, a synthetic painkiller.
Jones had his wife and son, 8, in the car at the time of the crash. They escaped uninjured.
Since being lodged in the Clallam County jail, Jones has gained considerable weight and was no longer the small, wiry man arrested the summer before last.
“I’m very sorry for what I’ve done,” Jones said, facing the gallery.
He said he had quit using drugs but “did one thing stupid” by taking a tranquilizer the night before the wreck.
Relatives of the dead men were allowed to address the court.
