HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Dave Cleveland as he appeared for sentencing. Advertisement

The family of Jeremy Moon, the 27-year-old who was killed in a head-on collision with a vehicle David Cleveland was driving Thanksgiving Day 2006, got the chance to have their say in court Monday.

After hours of testimony filled with love and grief for the deceased, Cleveland was sentenced to a minimum of 16 years in prison in addition to having to pay $181,970 in restitution to the family.

Moon's death left his wife, Anna, with severe injuries that resulted in the loss of one kidney.

Crystal Lopez, a Pahrump Valley High School student at the time and also a passenger, sustained injuries to her arm requiring a plate and 26 screws.

The accident also left Ian Moon, 10 months old at the time, fatherless.

A former athlete, Lopez suffers from a loss of mobility in her arm to this day.

In a plea agreement reached in January, Cleveland agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of driving under the influence of a controlled substance (listed in the criminal complaint as cocaine) causing death, and an additional felony count of driving under the influence causing substantial bodily harm.

Fifth District Judge Robert Lane ultimately sentenced Cleveland to eight to 20 years for each charge to be served consecutively.

Osvaldo Fumo, Cleveland's defense attorney, addressed the Moon families in court, admitting he could not bring himself to read Anna's victim impact statement until that very morning.

"Sixteen years is not going to bring back Jeremy Moon, or make Anna whole again," Fumo said.

However, he pointed out the usual sentence for a DUI charge with substantial bodily harm was four years.

"Such a sentence would provide deterrence for the public and give David time to cope with his mental illness and addiction," Fumo argued, referring to Cleveland's bi-polar disorder.

The attorney maintained Cleveland's drug and alcohol use were in response to his bi-polar disorder and sadness over the loss of his wife, Barbara Cleveland, several months before.

He also claimed Cleveland's behaviour during previous court appearances, during which he would yell out, interrupting proceedings, was not due to arrogance but the result of his mental illness.

Cleveland also addressed the family personally, often sobbing while doing so.

"I've had a year and a half to think about this day," Cleveland said. "I have a lot of remorse and pain over what happened that day and it's not just because I'm going to prison, probably for the rest of my life."

He told the family how he tried to send them money that first Christmas after the incident, and hoped they had received it.

Cleveland also said when the accident occurred, "I was first there, yelling for the holy spirit Jesus Christ to come down and save (Jeremy)," he said.

"I've done wrong, I've done serious wrong, and I take responsibility for what I did," Cleveland said.

That his statement marked a sharp contrast to Cleveland's nearly constant legal contortions since he was arrested did not go unnoticed by members of the Moon family.

Cleveland's court proceedings were delayed numerous times over the past year-and-a-half due to the defendant's changing counsel, having to be sent for medical testing to Lakes Crossing twice (he originally pleaded guilty by reason of insanity), filing a writ of habeas corpus over an allegedly improperly labeled lab sample (which was denied), and hinting during various hearings the car was to blame for the incident.

Anna described the difficulty of having to endure a long, hard litany of court proceedings, saying every time her grief process began, it was only stunted because she was forced to relive that horrible time all over again.

"The emotional pain is far worse than the physical pain," Anna said. "Every day, I feel as if someone is cutting my heart out with a spoon."

The young widow described the difficulty it took to get up each day and raise Ian, now a toddler, on her own.

She described the pain of having to experience what should be life's happiest moments -- such as Ian's first birthday and Christmas -- without her husband there to share in those times, and having to wake up on their anniversary and "instead of having someone there to kiss, having to deliver flowers to a grave.

"I never expected to be a widow and single mother at 26 years old," Anna cried, going on to describe all the ordinary, innocuous events that have served only to remind her of her loss over and over again. "Everything is bittersweet," Anna said. "Nothing is completely joyful, there will always be something missing for me."

Anna said getting out of bed each day is a conscious decision she has to make, and the main impetus for going on is that she doesn't want to allow Cleveland "to take anything more from me than he already has.

"I have made a conscious decision to forgive him," Anna said but asked that he be given a life sentence so that he would not have the opportunity to harm others.

Margie Moon, Jeremy's mother, described a young man who served as a central point of a large and loving family, keeping everyone connected and often giving good advice and serving as a example to younger cousins and his brother, to whom he was extremely close.

"He had a heart as big as he was, and he was six-feet, two-inches tall and 200 pounds," she said. "There is a void in so many lives now... Ian will never know and feel how much his dad loved him, just because Mr. Cleveland chose to do illegal drugs and drive," the bereaved mother said, sobbing.

In his closing remarks, Deputy District Attorney Kirk Vitto listed a long history of criminal offenses by Cleveland, including the fact that at the time of the Thanksgiving accident, the defendant had a warrant out for his arrest for a DUI incident in California which had occurred four months earlier.

"If you ingest massive amounts of cocaine, drive like a madman, lose control, kill someone and change the course of history for their lives, there's a price to pay and this is the time," Vitto said.

Vitto went on to list a number of previous charges incurred by Cleveland since 1986, including arson, domestic battery and disorderly conduct.

"David Cleveland acted like the world was his personal playground," Vitto said. "The whole point is that he should've learned before."