ISSAQUAH, Wash. — The family of a young man killed by a teen driver who then fled the scene is devastated after the judge sentenced that teen to less than two years in jail.
On May 28, 2017, Grisel Lozoya lost her son.
On Tuesday, in a King County courtroom, she felt like she lost him all over again.
“I’m very disappointed, I mean I feel so bad, I don’t feel this is right for my son,” she told us, after the sentencing.
The 15-year-old boy admitted to hitting and killing Grisel’s son—21-year-old Kevin Lozoya, while Lozoya and his friends walked home from a party in Issaquah last spring.
“Kevin dying in my arms last night—that’s baggage I’m going to have to carry for the rest of my life,” one of Lozoya’s friends told the judge.
The teen then fled and ditched the SUV he was driving down a ravine. It wasn’t until July the teen was caught and arrested. Police say his actions were intentional.
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In October friends and family of both the teen and Kevin Lozoya filled the courtroom at the juvenile detention center—half pleading for his release until sentencing, the other half begging he stay locked up. At that time the judge deemed him a danger to the public and he was kept in jail.
Tuesday many of those same friends and family on both sides made their case to the judge.
Kevin Lozoya’s loved ones wanted five years—the maximum sentence, but the standard is 15 to 36 weeks. Ultimately the judge gave 90 to 105 weeks, which was the agreed upon range in exchange for the teen’s guilty plea.
The teen’s family is relieved.
“If there’s anybody that can make something positive out of this it’s going to be him,” a relative told the court.
Kevin Lozoya’s family is devastated.
“Ninety weeks for a human life is nothing—it’s nothing,” Grisel Lozoya told us between sobs.
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