DRUNK DRIVER HIT AND RUN SUSPECT SENTENCED

GRAND RAPIDS – Kent County Circuit Judge George Quist sentenced Raysheen Harris Jr., 32,  to an 8 year minimum sentence for the fatal collision that killed bicyclist Nelson William Smith, 56, on the night of July 22nd, 2022. The charges include involuntary manslaughter, operating while intoxicated causing death and leaving the scene of an accident when at fault causing death. The felonies carry a 15-year maximum. The prosecutors had initially been pursuing a conviction on 2nd degree murder, but the charges were dropped after the 4 day trial while the jury settled on the lesser offenses.

With their opening statements last Tuesday the prosecution didn’t pull any punches or spare any details – describing the scene of what was an extremely violent death.

“Unfortunately for (Smith), he doesn’t realize the defendant is driving that fast, and essentially in the middle of the street, the defendant hits him,” Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Lawrence Boivin told the jury. “You are going to see and hear a human being — there’s no other way to put it — being exploded.”

Speaking of the incident, prosecutors argued Harris was traveling at 85 mph and had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit when he struck Smith on July 22.. The crash happened on South Division Avenue near 36th Street in Wyoming. The speed limit in that area is 40 mph. After the collision the suspect fled the scene, but stopped shortly later on to remove a body part of the victim from his car. He then drove off again, but was soon stopped by a Kent County Sherriff Deputy. Police affidavit of the stop and subsequent arrest noted a strong odor of intoxicants coming from Harris, as well as bloodshot eyes, poor balance and slurred speech.

Cases like these are oftentimes more difficult to manage, or more traumatic for victims families and those close to the case, as opposed to others – where the victim was perhaps targeted or there is a reason or motive for the violence. Assistant Prosecutor Lawrence Boivin put it best, speaking after the sentencing, “These acts by the defendant have placed Mr. Nelson’s family in – it’s cruel randomness. You’re at home. All of a sudden you get a phone call from the police (and they) say, ‘I’m sorry your loved one is dead, because some random individual decided to get blistering drunk in the middle of the day, drive 85 mph on South Division and literally explode your dad.”

“There is simply no excuse – no rationale.”

Atina Davis had a chance to speak to the man who killed her father after the sentencing. Atina had reportedly been estranged from her father for nearly 12 years, but they reconnected last spring, saying the 4 months they had, hold some of her most cherished adult memories. But when faced with Harris, Davis leveled no sympathy his direction saying – “I had four months to reconnect with him and it just wasn’t enough. I waited 12 years – 12 years – to have him back in my life and he was gone, – And you know what, Mr. Harris? You took the best four months of my adult life and you ruined it. You took it from me.”

Harris was quiet, and reserved throughout the trial, but in closing statements he expressed his regret and apologized to Smiths family, saying he wishes things would have gone differently and hopes for their forgiveness someday. However with Davis’s final words – “You are a murderer regardless of what the law has to say and I hope every last one of your days is miserable.” – likely ringing in his ears, that doesn’t sound too probable.

The official sentence handed down on earlier today, August 28th, 2023, by Kent County Circuit Judge George Quist was at least 100 months in prison, or a little more than eight years, for involuntary manslaughter, operating while intoxicated causing death and leaving the scene of an accident when at fault causing death. Harris will get credit for a little more than a year in jail already served.