‘It’s never going to be enough’

Tsioni was driving for Lyft and had picked up Morales Ramirez as a fare when they were caught up in the three-car wreck caused by the 17-year-old, who was driving drunk the wrong way down Foothills Parkway the night of April 9.

Morales Ramirez was pronounced dead at the scene, while Tsioni was taken to the hospital and died the next day.

Spencer, who was in a third vehicle, was seriously injured.

The families of Tsioni and Morales Ramirez pushed for the maximum straight jail sentence, which could have been up to 18 months due to the DUI plea.

“She took lives, and she ruined many other lives; she needs to pay for this dearly” Tsioni’s father Eyton told Bakke. “Your decision could affect how many other families go through the daily nightmare we do.”

After the hearing, Morales Ramirez’s son, Luis Sevilla Morales, said while he felt the driver was sincere in her remorse, he still felt her actions deserved a harsher punishment and was “very hurt” by the judge’s ruling.

“I think it’s too little,” he said through an interpreter following the hearing. “How could she give nine months to a person that killed two people?”

Other family members wondered why the case was charged in juvenile court.

“She saw herself as an adult, her parents saw her as an adult,” Tsioni’s sister Galia said. “I think it’s absurd we’re sitting here in a juvenile case.”

Dougherty said his office looked at the criteria necessary to try and transfer a juvenile case to adult court, and said his office felt like the case did not meet the required factors.

Even if prosecutors had requested the transfer, Dougherty noted Bakke would have had to approve the case being moved to adult court.

“I think by her sentence Judge Bakke has indicated where she might have ended up on that,” Dougherty said.

Bakke said she felt a straight jail sentence would do more harm to the driver because of her age, and that even a lengthy sentence would not bring the victims’ families the closure they sought.

“It’s never going to be enough,” Bakke said. “I don’t think that jail time is going to bring you peace.”

Bakke said.

A Boulder County grand jury also indicted five parents, two companies and a Boulder liquor store on suspicion of supplying alcohol to teens prior to the prom.

Their cases remain pending.

“(The driver) is 17 at the time of the crash, and that’s why we also went after the adults: They bear some responsibility,” Dougherty said. “I do hope that for community members out there, there are some lessons learned.”

But defense attorney Jim Kennedy said that the driver, from the beginning of the case, wanted to plead guilty and accept her responsibility.

“(She) is a bright young woman who made a terrible decision,” Kennedy said. “She won’t downplay the decision as a mistake or call it an accident. The day this happened, (she) wanted to accept responsibility.”

The 18-year-old said she has found it hard to forgive herself for what she did.

“I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t eat and I couldn’t sleep, and I couldn’t look in the mirror,” she said. “I have never hated anyone in my life, and I hated myself, I hated myself so much.

“I think it is so unfair that I’m here today, and they are not… But I think I need to live to feel the punishment. If I had died that night, it would have been the easy way out.”

Bakke said she had no doubt the woman would fulfill all the conditions the court handed down, but said the driver would have to take an even harder step to truly give back to the community the way the victims would have wanted.

“The most important thing you need to do… is you have to forgive yourself,” Bakke said. “If you don’t do that, you will never move forward, and you will never be giving true meaning to the death of Gloria and Ori.”