Gervais family says 7 years not enough for Shelton

When the family gathered at Jim and Jean Gervais’ Freeland home Friday evening, the mood was somber. The drunk driver who drove the car that killed the couple’s daughter, Karen Gervais Boone, 18 months ago had been sent to prison for more than seven years. But the deep breath that would bring relief wasn’t there.

The family had just returned from a Coupeville courtroom where they witnessed a Superior Court judge sentence Randi Shelton to 89 months in prison. It was the end to a lengthy court battle.

“We sat on our back deck. My family. My daughter’s maid-of-honor had come from California,” Jean Gervais recalled.

“It’s closure of that part. You have to make peace with it. Make it part of yourself.”

Island County Superior Court Judge Alan Hancock sentenced Shelton to the maximum penalty for the death of Gervais Boone: 89 months in prison, including two 24-month sentence enhancements for Shelton’s prior DUI convictions.

“It’s evident to me that anything less than the maximum penalty would be unjust,” Hancock said in court.

And while the prison sentence shows the judge agreed that Shelton’s crime called for the maximum penalty, justice was not served, Gervais said.

“Seven years, in my opinion, were not severe enough. It is an inadequate sentence,” Gervais said.

“The legal system in Washington, the guidelines the judges have to work with, are inadequate.”

She compared the punishment that Shelton got with the one handed to Craig Firth, the man who broke into The Braeburn and St. Hubert Catholic Church in Langley.

Just four days earlier, Firth was sent to jail for 51 months.

“That says, in this society, we value property over life,” Gervais said. “The insurance can pay for the damage to the Braeburn and the church. My daughter can’t be replaced.”

Tale of three moms

The fatal crash caused by Shelton was one of the highest profile DUI cases on Whidbey Island in recent years. Shelton got behind the wheel after drinking excessively, and police said liquor bottles were found in her car after the crash.

Gervais Boone, a beloved community volunteer, was on her way home from work when Shelton hit her head-on on Highway 525.

In a standing-room-only court room, Gervais shared her shattered world Friday.

“As far as I am concerned there is only two of us here — two mothers,” she told Shelton.

“I’m going to tell you the story of three mothers. You, me and my daughter — who lies in a grave less than two miles from here.”

Gervais said she visited her daughter’s grave before coming to court.

“I just promised her I’d do everything in my power to make you understand the gravity of the situation,” Gervais said.

Jake Boone, Gervais Boone’s 15-year-old son, sat nearby, facing the woman responsible for his mother’s death for the first time.

Standing in court, Gervais held up pictures of her grandchildren, Jake and Ellie.

“Her mother won’t be there when she graduates high school. She won’t be there for her wedding. My daughter will never see her grandchildren,” Gervais said as she held up a photo of Ellie.

“When you look into the eyes of your first grandchild, I want you to think of Ellie Boone,” she added.

Jake watched from the bench, fighting back tears.

“You are a murderer. There is no other way of describing it,” she said.

Shelton cried quietly during much of the hearing, often biting her lip. While the judge was speaking, she closed her eyes.

Gervais later said she didn’t feel Shelton’s tears were sincere.

“I watched Randi Shelton in the last 18 months. The woman has never shown remorse for what she did,” she said.

“I think the tears were for herself.”

Grasping every straw

Shelton, whose blood alcohol level was measured three times the legal limit at the time of the crash, pled guilty to one count of vehicular homicide in Island County Superior Court in May.

After more than a year of delays due to her extensive injuries after the crash and legal maneuvers that followed, Shelton said she wanted to spare Gervais Boone’s family from having to endure a trial.

The family didn’t see it that way.

“She tried every legal trick in the book,” said John Boone, Gervais Boone’s husband, at Friday’s hearing.

Up to the end, Shelton bargained for more time. When it became clear that Hancock would side with the prosecution, Shelton’s lawyer, Craig Platt, tried to keep her out of jail for two more weeks, citing medical reasons.

Earlier in the process, Platt tried unsuccessfully to get evidence thrown out of the case due to irregularities that were found in the state’s toxicology laboratory. The problems were unrelated to Shelton’s blood test, however.

Most recently, the defense claimed that the prosecution had not collected sufficient evidence to prove Shelton’s prior DUI convictions.

She was convicted in Oregon in 1990 and 1996 under different names: Randi Gehrke and Randi Morlock.

Shelton’s attorney challenged the existence of those convictions, but the prosecutor’s office collected evidence, including identical birth dates and Social Security numbers, that pinned the prior convictions on Shelton.

Platt later said Shelton’s legal strategy was to buy her time with her children before going to prison.

“She was grasping at anything to have extra time with her children,” he said.

After the hearing, Gervais said the fate of Shelton’s children was often on her mind.

“I would be remiss not to mention that we have, in our family, talked about our concern for Randi Shelton’s two teenage children,” she said.

“I have such compassion for them. They are the innocent victims of an irresponsible mother.”

The senseless crash

The tragedy began 18 months ago.

According to court records, Shelton was driving under the influence of alcohol on Highway 525 on Jan. 22, 2007 when her Dodge Durango struck Gervais Boone’s car.

Before the crash, several drivers had called dispatchers as Shelton passed them on her erratic path down the highway.

One caller prophetically told the dispatcher, “They are going to kill somebody” when Shelton passed them, according to the prosecution’s sentencing memorandum.

The details of the crash are still vivid for the family.

Jim Gervais, Gervais Boone’s father, also spoke at the sentencing.

“I can’t stand here a year and a half later without tears in my eyes,” he said. “And I cry in my heart every day.”

Gervais has channeled some of his anguish into founding a South End MADD chapter that meets regularly in Freeland.

Boone, Gervais Boone’s husband, also spoke briefly at the hearing. He choked up when he thanked Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks and his staff for their hard work.

John Boone stressed the senselessness of his wife’s death, recalling how Shelton had three times the legal alcohol limit in her blood when she hit Gervais Boone’s van.

Before she was sentenced, Shelton apologized for her actions.

“I know how much pain this has caused my children and I can only imagine what hers are going through,” Shelton said.

In the end, though, the judge followed the prosecutor’s recommendation and also denied Shelton a two-week extension to report to prison.

“This was a senseless and appalling crime,” Hancock said. “The 911 tapes are chilling.”

“The court is not here to judge

Ms. Shelton’s inner character, but her criminal actions,” Hancock said.

“And goodness knows, they are atrocious.”

When Shelton was handcuffed and led away by an officer, the room was silent.

“It was one of the happiest moments of my life seeing her being handcuffed and taken away,” Jean Gervais later said.

Life without Karen

While lawyers argued about details of the case, challenged and counter-challenged findings, Boone and the Gervais family tried to make sure that Gervais Boone’s greatest legacy, her children, would have the most “normal life” possible.

Even though the children are young, especially Ellie, their grandmother is not worried that they will forget what their mom was like, what she looked like and how she loved them, she said.

“We talk about their mother all the time,” Gervais said.

She recalled Ellie wanting her ears pierced recently after all of her friends got earrings. But her mom had set an age for Ellie to get her ears pierced, and it wasn’t time yet.

Ellie negotiated like any young girl would with her father. And after a while her dad decided to allow her to get the piercing a little early.

Before the final decision was made, the idea was run by mom.

“We said, ‘What would mom do?’” Gervais recalled. “‘She would be OK with it.’”

“We keep her presence,” Gervais said. “They have the memory of a wonderful mother.”