{"id":27589,"date":"2024-05-15T18:32:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T00:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/vehicular-homicide-sentencing-becomes-demonstration-of-forgiveness\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:05:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:05:53","slug":"vehicular-homicide-sentencing-becomes-demonstration-of-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/vehicular-homicide-sentencing-becomes-demonstration-of-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Vehicular homicide sentencing becomes demonstration of forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Matthew
Matthew Pearson Hall. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, April 23, Matthew Pearson Hall, 54, was sentenced in the 22nd Judicial District to 12 months of supervised probation and 100 hours of community service in the death<\/a> of 18-year-old Davonte Silas James on U.S. Highway 160 last year.<\/p>\n

The crash later was found to be caused by undiagnosed narcolepsy.<\/p>\n

At his sentencing hearing April 23, Hall\u2019s lawyer, Laura Menninger of Haddon, Morgan and Foreman in Denver, spoke of Hall\u2019s narcolepsy diagnosis after the crash, saying that Hall\u2019s narcolepsy includes seizures and loss of consciousness without much recollection of events before and after the episodes occur.<\/p>\n

He is now receiving treatment for this diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Mary Silas, James\u2019 mother, addressed Judge William Furse and the court, speaking of her son and her forgiveness of Hall, saying that she had the chance to speak with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly believe that is was a terrible accident,\u201d Silas said. \u201cIt was not preventable. I\u2019m a believer in forgiveness. This really did challenge my beliefs and understanding of my beliefs in general, but I do forgive Mr. Hall. I miss my son a lot, but no amount of time in jail or no kind of punishment can ever bring my son back.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

James was remembered as someone who was devoted to his family and loved music, as well as being a hard worker. He was heading to work at the time of the crash and was about to graduate from high school.<\/p>\n

Silas went on to say that she wanted to honor her son and continue moving forward, rather than being trapped in a cycle of anger and bitterness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my son would definitely be proud of me for not keeping a grudge,\u201d Silas said. \u201cHe\u2019s never been a person to hold grudges at all. He\u2019s definitely happy it was just him and not the family or anybody else. \u2026 I\u2019d just like to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menninger shared that Hall also has an 18-year-old son.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Hall wants to acknowledge that he carries the memory of Davonte with him. He speaks to him in his mind on a daily basis,\u201d Menninger said. \u201cThere is absolutely nothing we can say or do to bring Davonte back, but we think it\u2019s most appropriate that we honor his legacy today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall, who is a former paramedic and volunteer firefighter, was injured in an accident while attending a patient in 2002, and has undergone 22 subsequent surgeries in the past 22 years, with three more scheduled for 2024. Menninger also spoke of Hall\u2019s love of volunteering in his community.<\/p>\n

Menninger said Hall didn\u2019t want a trial because he wanted to acknowledge that he \u201chad crossed the centerline.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his plea, Hall was prepared to plea guilty to a felony rather than a misdemeanor for careless driving resulting in death and opted for 1,000 hours of community service in Montezuma County, rather than in California, to give back to the community in which James lived.<\/p>\n

When it was Hall\u2019s turn to address the court, Hall spoke of James through tears, saying that he plays music for James and thinks about him every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want whatever is right for Mary and her family,\u201d Hall said. \u201cBless you, Davonte. Godspeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

After taking a few minutes to make a decision, Furse thanked Silas for her words to the court, saying that her words of forgiveness were powerful and ones he wasn\u2019t sure he would be able to say in the same situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe you to be a wonderful mother and a remarkable human being,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At first, Furse said he had been concerned about the \u201cappropriateness\u201d of the requested sentencing in the plea bargain, but that after hearing from Silas, Hall and Menninger, he decided that it was an appropriate ask, though a risky one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that speaks to your abilities and your likelihood of success,\u201d Furse said to Hall. \u201cYour life has demonstrated that you are more than this case and that you are not to be judged by the accident, as I\u2019ll call it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furse accepted Hall\u2019s plea agreement, while saying that he wished to help Silas and Hall and their families move on from the tragedy.<\/p>\n

Saying that he believed 1,000 hours of community service \u201cleaves this chapter of both of your lives open for too long\u201d and that he doesn\u2019t see evidence that there was need for a sentence that long, Judge Furse sentenced Hall to 12 months of supervised probation and 100 hours of community service or volunteer time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see someone who is genuinely apologetic, remorseful and proactive,\u201d Furse said.<\/p>\n

To finish, Furse said he hopes both parties find closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for sharing Davonte\u2019s life with me,\u201d Furse said. \u201cI wish you both love and life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The accident occurred on U.S. 160 near milepost 57.8 on April 2, 2023. Hall, who is from Portola Valley, California, was driving a 2018 Chevrolet Suburban westbound when his vehicle swerved and struck James, who was driving his 2007 Ford Fusion eastbound.<\/p>\n

According to reports, the crash took place at 12:38 p.m. Those who witnessed the crash told law enforcement that James\u2019 vehicle attempted to avoid Hall\u2019s Suburban, but they collided 2 feet from the centerline in the westbound lane. Both vehicles were totaled, and James was pronounced dead on the scene.<\/p>\n

First responders shared that James was extricated from his vehicle, and an autopsy report done by Montezuma County Coroner Assistant Carter Smith determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the neck and chest.<\/p>\n

James was from Ignacio.<\/p>\n

Before the crash, there were at least two Report Every Drunk Driver Immediately calls. Both callers said that Hall was driving erratically and kept swerving into the lane of oncoming traffic.<\/p>\n

Call logs show that the REDDI calls came in at 12:17 p.m. and 12:32 p.m. before the crash was reported at 12:40 p.m.<\/p>\n

Trooper Steven King, who did an on-location interview with Hall, said Hall immediately acknowledged that he was the one at fault in the crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at fault, there\u2019s no doubt in my mind,\u201d Hall reportedly told King.<\/p>\n

King noted that Hall had dilated and bloodshot eyes, gave delayed responses and struggled to answer simple questions. He was unable to give a clear answer on where he was going and why. Hall was transported to Southwest Memorial Hospital soon after for chest pains.<\/p>\n

At the hospital, Trooper Edward McLaren-Rose spoke with Hall, saying in his incident report that Hall was \u201ctwitchy\u201d and couldn\u2019t sit still, giving repetitive answers once again.<\/p>\n

Southwest Memorial\u2019s Dr. Michael Cavanaugh\u2019s discharge diagnosis said that Hall\u2019s \u201cchest wall pain\u201d was because of the motor vehicle collision, and noted that Hall had high blood pressure.<\/p>\n

Hall was found to have traces of drugs in his system. He also admitted that he had taken a cannabis pill in \u201ccompound form,\u201d but the drug traces were later found to be from prescription drugs that Hall took for ADHD, rather than from substance abuse issues.<\/p>\n

After leaving the hospital, Hall was booked at the Montezuma County Detention Center on the charges of vehicular homicide while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs resulting in death, driving under the influence and careless driving. The charges later were changed as the investigation unfolded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Davonte James was killed in a head-on collision with Matthew Hall last year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,133,255,701,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-27589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-courts","tag-death-and-dying","tag-disasters-and-crashes","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80118,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27589\/revisions\/80118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27589"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}