LAWRENCEVILLE - A 22-year-old Gainesville man apologized to the victims' families Monday as he pleaded guilty to causing a chain-reaction crash that killed four people, including three members of a Lawrenceville family.
Emotions ran high in the courtroom, where Cody Rhoden and family members of the victims testified.
Rhoden pleaded guilty to four counts of vehicular homicide on Monday in the 2008 accident along Interstate 85 in Gwinnett County. A judge sentenced Rhoden to 40 years in prison followed by 30 years of probation.
Authorities say Rhoden was speeding when his vehicle struck a limousine carrying a family home from the airport.
Witnesses said Rhoden was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic. Investigators said Rhoden left the scene of the accident.
Killed in the crash were Mark Anthony Gay, 44, of Lawrenceville, the driver; Whitney Randle of Lawrenceville and her son, 13-month-old Kayden Alexander Randle-Finley; and the woman's brother, 14-year-old Alexander Randle of Lawrenceville.
Rhoden took the stand during the sentencing phase of the trial and apologized.
``Never meant for any of this to happen. I know it may not look like that but if I could go back to that date and trade my life for any of them I would,'' he said.
The family was returning from a wedding in Utah when they crashed. Gay, the owner of Destiny Limos, was hired by the Randle family to take them to their Lawrenceville home. Gay was a widower and the father of a 16-year-old son.
``I'm lost. My firstborn died in my arms. My fiancee died in my arms. My little brother died after responding to me on the highway. My life has not been the same,'' Latavius Finley testified during sentencing on Monday.
Friday
April 26th, 2024
9:22PM
