FARMINGTON " Life-altering moments can often happen in milliseconds.
A July 28, 2010, car accident, in which one driver struck two men riding mountain bikes, altered the lives of all three people involved, including the man who will suffer the consequences of a traumatic brain injury for life and the driver who will spend the next 4.5 years behind bars.
Chief District Judge John Dean sentenced Clifford Bunnie to the maximum sentence Wednesday for hitting Steve Magee, 55, and Corey Christy, 38, with his vehicle while the men were riding their mountain bikes.
"This is not the end of your life," Dean said in his address to Bunnie. "You'll be able to walk off physically unscathed, the other side will not."
Dean sentenced Bunnie, who pleaded guilty March 18, to three years for third-degree felony great bodily injury by motor vehicle and 18 months for leaving the scene of an accident, to be served consecutively.
Both families made emotional pleas to the judge, Christy's for the maximum sentence and Bunnie's for leniency.
Eight members of Bunnie's family apologized to Christy's and Magee's family, and told the judge Bunnie was kind, quiet and very caring in response largely to the victim's testimonies that Bunnie, throughout the court proceedings, did not appear to be remorseful.
That day, Bunnie was traveling north on Cordoba Way when Magee and Christy topped the hill and began to pick up speed.
Bunnie's Grand Prix slowed down near a stop sign but then
accelerated and drove through it.
The car broadsided Magee on the right, striking him with the front of the car, sending him flying through the air.
"He hit me and I went over the car and landed on the pavement," Magee said in court Wednesday.
"I didn't hear anything," he previously said. "The shock of getting hit freaked me out and I reached up and grabbed my head."
Magee believes the hot pavement helped him
regain consciousness.
"It was like lying on a frying pan," he said. "I watched (the Grand Prix) drive off and that is when I saw Corey."
Christy broadsided the car, hitting the driver's side door and was thrown to the pavement where he struck his head, police reported.
"I thought I would watch him die," Magee said of his friend.
Had it not been for the witnesses who heard the crash or the construction worker who witnessed it, it's likely Christy would not be alive.
The construction worker followed Bunnie's car for nearly four miles after he fled the scene.
"Had they not responded immediately, we would've been here on a homicide by motor vehicle," Chief Deputy District Attorney Dustin O'Brien said.
"To leave a man there dying is horrendous," Christy's wife, Julie said in court. "He is not fine. The struggles he faces every day are overwhelming."
Christy takes 12 pills a day, some anti-seizure medication, and has undergone two brain surgeries.
He remained in intensive care for 21 days following the accident and the couple's hospital bills are mounting â€" up to $300,000.
The expenses will continue to grow as Christy will need lifelong medical care for the traumatic brain injury.
"Bunnie admitted to knowingly leaving the scene without rendering aid after the crash," according to court records.
While Bunnie initially denied drinking alcohol, he told officers he smoked "two resin hits," around 5:30 a.m., before going to work at the Sonic.
A breath-alcohol test taken after the crash registered a .04, under the legal limit of .08, and Bunnie told police he drank two shots of Yukon Jack about 5:30 a.m., according to court records.
He was driving around in the Foothills area to "kill time," according to police records.
Bunnie could earn day-for-day good time in prison, meaning he could be out in a little more than two years.
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