AURORA | A man who police say was drunk and high on cocaine when he slammed his van into a motorcycle in Aurora in 2016, killing both people on the bike, has been convicted of multiple charges.
An Arapahoe County jury on Tuesday convicted Matthew Samuel Smith, 58, of Littleton, of two counts of vehicular homicide DUI, two counts of vehicular homicide reckless driving, two counts of reckless manslaughter and one count of failure to yield right of way, according to prosecutors.
The charges stem from the Labor Day 2016 deaths of Brandon Dobson, 21, and Breona Knight, 20.
“The defendant’s life intersected with the lives of two young people that night, and they ended up dead,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Sugioka told the jury during closing arguments, according to a statement from prosecutors. “There was overwhelming evidence … he killed them because he was driving under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.”
Prosecutors said Smith was headed south on Parker Road when he tried to turn onto East Temple Drive and slammed into the bike Dobson was riding with Knight as his passenger.
Police found several small bottles of peppermint schnapps in Smith’s van after the crash, and blood tests showed he was drunk and had cocaine in his system.
“With alcohol and cocaine running through his body, Smith inexplicably climbed behind the wheel and snuffed out Brandon and Breona’s young lives. Unwilling to take responsibility for the deaths he caused, Smith blamed everybody but himself at trial, including the victims,” District Attorney George Brauchler said in a statement. “Under Colorado’s weak DUI laws, Smith could still get probation, despite killing two young members of our community. In an era of Uber and Lyft and taxis and light rail, driving intoxicated in the metro area is selfish, indifferent to the innocent lives on our roads, and — far too often — lethal. Oh yeah, and entirely preventable.”