{"id":43312,"date":"2021-12-10T21:29:13","date_gmt":"2021-12-11T04:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-sentenced-to-prison-for-head-on-crash-causing-serious-injuries-south-of-durango\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:12:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:12:58","slug":"man-sentenced-to-prison-for-head-on-crash-causing-serious-injuries-south-of-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-sentenced-to-prison-for-head-on-crash-causing-serious-injuries-south-of-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Man sentenced to prison for head-on crash causing serious injuries south of Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Durango man was sentenced to prison on Friday for a crash that seriously injured two people.<\/p>\n

Michael Snook, 48, pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular assault for causing a head-on crash while driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana May 14 on U.S. Highway 550, south of Durango. He was sentenced by 6th Judicial District Judge William Herringer to four years in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t look at this case and say anything less than a prison sentence is defensible,\u201d Herringer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not somebody who had an extra glass of wine at a Christmas party and got pulled over. Mr. Snook was essentially a loaded weapon that night,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kenny Wendland spoke on behalf of his daughter, Shasta Alleman, who he said was not emotionally prepared to speak about her injuries and the trauma the wreck caused.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want revenge, but it\u2019s only fair that there\u2019s some consequences for your actions,\u201d Wendland told Herringer.<\/p>\n

In graphic detail, Wendland described the many injuries that have upended his daughter\u2019s life after the crash.<\/p>\n

He spoke of brain damage, severe scarring from her legs up to her neck, lung stents and more than $2 million in medical bills.<\/p>\n

Wendland said Alleman hasn\u2019t returned to church or been able to visit Walmart because she\u2019s unable to go to the bathroom alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the physical damages,\u201d Wendland said. \u201cHow she feels about herself and how she looks is going to be for the rest of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputy District Attorney Appellate Sean Murray asked the court to consider the seriousness of Alleman\u2019s injuries when sentencing Snook.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the people are asking for is that the court not give Mr. Snook a slap on the wrist, which would equate to a slap in the face to the community and to these victims,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

He said the psychological trauma Alleman has faced in the wake of the crash has been as severe as her injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Ms. Alleman) wishes she had perished in the crash because her life as she knew it is over,\u201d Murray said. \u201cEvery day she is suffering. Every moment she is suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

A somber Herringer acknowledged that he had difficulty reading a victim-impact statement because of graphic details of Alleman\u2019s injuries.<\/p>\n

Snook struck and injured Alleman, who was 30 at the time, and Alva Radcliff, who was 32, while driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana on May 14.<\/p>\n

Snook was returning to Durango from Tico Time River Resort in Aztec when he found himself on the wrong side of the road and plowed his Ford F-150 pickup into a Nissan Altima occupied by Alleman and Radcliff.<\/p>\n

Snook refused testing at the scene of the crash, but Murray said Snook\u2019s blood-alcohol level two hours later was 0.174, more than twice the legal driving limit in Colorado.<\/p>\n

State troopers found open alcohol containers and three open marijuana containers in Snook\u2019s truck.<\/p>\n

Radcliff was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center with broken ribs and a broken finger.<\/p>\n

Alleman was also taken to Mercy, but was then flown to a hospital in Colorado Springs because of the life-threatening injuries she suffered.<\/p>\n

Alleman spent 75 days in the hospital.<\/p>\n

When Snook rose to speak, he said he was devastated by his actions and the harm he caused.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main concern remains and has always been the recovery of the victims,\u201d Snook said.<\/p>\n

Both Herringer and Snook\u2019s defense attorney, Richard Jaye, said they had rarely seen someone so remorseful for his or her actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Snook is a good human being,\u201d Jaye said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen him cry. I have seen him weep,\u201d Jaye said. \u201cHe will never, never forget that night and never forget what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Herringer imposed his sentence, Snook handed his phone and his wallet to Jaye as he was led away by a La Plata County sheriff\u2019s deputy.<\/p>\n

Wendland said after the hearing Snook\u2019s sentence brought neither his daughter nor his family relief or comfort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen somebody\u2019s sentenced to four years in prison, nobody feels good,\u201d Wendland said. \u201cWe just want him to understand what\u2019s been done to our family. It\u2019s been devastating for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

ahannon@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Snook drove wrong way on U.S. Highway 550 while intoxicated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[133,168,480,28,254,1384],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-dui","tag-headlines","tag-road-crash","tag-u-s-highway-550"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43312","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=43312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85654,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43312\/revisions\/85654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43312"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}