At sentencing, grieving father makes plea to Johnson County judge. Would it matter?

With a packed courtroom of supporters behind him, Randall Ensley stood before a Johnson County judge as a grieving father with a passionate plea.

His youngest son, Will, a standout swimmer at Shawnee Mission Northwest, died 16 months ago after the driver of a dump truck failed to stop at a traffic light at Metcalf and West 115th Street in Overland Park and slammed into the teen’s truck. Darrin Boomershine later told police that he was looking at a woman in a vehicle a few cars ahead and wasn’t paying attention to the vehicles stopped at a red light that July 2023 morning.

“The defendant was reckless and indifferent to the safety and wellbeing of everyone on that roadway,” Ensley told District Judge Timothy McCarthy Monday afternoon. “And as a result, he killed a sweet young man in the prime of his life.”

Will’s family wanted Boomershine to go to trial, ultimately for manslaughter, so his actions that morning would be revealed. Instead, Boomershine pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide — a misdemeanor — and waited Monday to see if he’d indeed be given a year of probation, be required to pay restitution and spend a month in the county jail. All of which attorneys had agreed on.

And that’s where Ensley’s own plea came in.

“The state and the defense have evidently agreed to this weak plea agreement,” Ensley told the judge. “So, I ask you as the final arbiter in this matter to please consider a stronger, more just sentence.”

“… I’m asking this court to do right by Will and the entire community of people who loved him.”

As Ensley walked from the podium, a strong applause filled the courtroom. Many of those in attendance wore shirts with Will’s name.

The Shawnee teen died just weeks before he would have started his senior year. He was a captain of the Shawnee Mission Northwest swim team, helped manage the girl’s squad and was known by his coach as a leader who gave the sport all he had and did whatever was asked of him.

Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kendall Kaut took over the case about a month ago after the last assistant prosecuting attorney — Gregory Benefiel — left the office for another position.

After the hearing, Kaut said that to get a conviction of involuntary manslaughter would have required proof of recklessness at trial. With vehicular homicide, prosecutors would have to prove it was more than ordinary negligence but did not rise to the level of gross negligence.

“It’s such a narrow band,” Haut said later, “which is why Greg made that offer.”

Before the judge issued his sentence, Boomershine stepped to the podium. His attorney, Ryan Ginie, had just offered his own “heartfelt condolences to everyone” in the courtroom.

His client, he said, “is not a bad man, and he’s here to take responsibility for his actions.”

Boomershine read from a short statement.

“I deeply apologize for what has happened in this accident,” he said. “I can only imagine the pain and sorrow I have caused.”

His voice began to break. Boomershine asked that everyone “keep in mind this was an accident.”

“Just keep that in mind.”

But Ensley — along with his wife, Sharon, and son, Jack, who sat in the front row of the courtroom — wanted Boomershine to be held accountable for Will’s death. They wanted the judge to sentence him to 12 months in jail and restitution.

“The proposed plea agreement of thirty days of shock time is grossly unjust,” Ensley told McCarthy, “as it neither provides justice for our son Will Michael Ensley, whose life was taken from him, nor for our community.”

The question was, would Judge McCarthy see things the same way?

Stopped at a traffic light

The crash occurred the morning of July 26, 2023 as Will, 17, was headed to swim practice. He had joined the Empire KC Swim Club to get in additional training and competition for his senior swim season.

Driving his late grandfather’s pickup truck, which he and one of his friends would sit on the bed of after school, Will stopped at a traffic light on Metcalf Avenue at West 115th Street in Overland Park. He was behind a line of vehicles.

Driving a Kenworth dump truck south on Metcalf, Boomershine didn’t heed to the traffic and rammed into Will’s truck from behind, triggering a 9-car pile up. Court records show that Boomershine was traveling 38 miles per hour before the 6:45 a.m. collision.

The affidavit detailing the charges said Boomershine spoke to officers after the crash. Police asked him what happened.

“I don’t even really know, man,” Boomershine told them, according to the affidavit. “All I know is I was looking down at a green car and next thing I know, bam.”

He told officers the green car was a “little ways before” the area where the collision occurred.

“He was looking at a female in the green car,” the affidavit said.

Boomershine had a commercial driver’s license to operate the dump truck, but according to court records, his medical certificate had expired at the time of the crash and the dump truck was “not properly registered.”

Prosecutors charged Boomershine last December with one count each of vehicular homicide, no vehicle registration and violation of the motor carrier safety rules and regulations, all misdemeanors. He was also charged with a traffic violation of following another vehicle too closely for an earlier incident that occurred the month before the fatal crash.

Ensley said his son was in strong mental and physical condition that July. He was working toward a goal of winning state in the 100-yard breaststroke, his best event.

The previous weekend, he swam six races at an area competition. In each of those, he clocked a personal best, his dad told the judge.

“Will didn’t have cancer, or heart disease,” Ensley said in court, his voice breaking. “Will didn’t fall down the stairs or slip on ice and hit his head. Put simply, Will’s not with us today because his killer recklessly parked a dump truck on top of him.”

A ‘senseless’ crash

Brenda VandenBos, a long-time friend of the Ensleys, also spoke to the court at Monday’s sentencing. Her son Tyler first met Will in kindergarten and the two became fast friends.

After Will’s death, they calculated that Tyler and Will must have eaten lunch together a “conservative” 1,500 times. Her son couldn’t be there Monday, VandenBos said.

“He could not take seeing the face of the man who took his best friend’s life,” VandenBos told the judge.

She called the crash “senseless.”

“All for someone to get a look at a girl,” she said.

Judge McCarthy looked out into the courtroom as he sentenced Boomershine.

“I feel badly for the Ensley family,” he said. The judge said he couldn’t imagine “being in their shoes.”

In the end, he followed the plea agreement. Except for one deviation.

McCarthy sentenced Boomershine to 12 months probation and restitution of $92,059.26.

But he ventured away from the plea agreement when it came to jail time. Instead of the 30 days in the agreement, he sentenced Boomershine to 60 days in the county jail.

“Good luck to you on probation,” McCarthy told the defendant.

If Boomershine violates that probation, he would end up serving another 10 months in jail.

The Ensley family and dozens of their friends and family left the courtroom saying little. Later Monday, Ensley said he had been “holding out hope that (the judge) would sentence him to the full 12 months.”

When he spoke in court Monday, Will’s father asked everyone to “put yourself in Will’s place for a moment.”

“He was stopped waiting for a light to turn,” Ensley said. “I taught my sons to occasionally check their mirrors while waiting for a light, as that was what my father who had been a professional driver had instructed me to do.

“So, I’m confident that Will would have noticed the large, loud, fast-moving vehicle approaching, but Will was boxed in and had nowhere to go. As his father I feel the terror he must have felt in those moments.”

EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel