Grant Rodgers

grodgers@dmreg.com

The parents of a popular Des Moines cyclist killed by a drunken driver promised Friday to keep pressure on state legislators to fix Iowa’s “catch and release” handling of intoxicated motorists.

Gregary and Jan Franck made that vow Friday just minutes after watching a Polk County jury convict Jonathan Leyva Rodriguez of vehicular homicide and five other charges stemming from the crash that left their son, Gregary Wade Franck, bloodied and dying after he was struck along Grand Avenue.

Leyva Rodriguez, 32, previously had been convicted of operating while intoxicated before the Aug. 16 crash, and his driver’s license was suspended at the time.

“We’re grateful that the nightmare of the trial is over and that Iowans will not have to fear being killed by this repeat drunk driver for years to come,” Gregary Franck said after the verdict was read. “In Wade’s memory, Jan and I will continue to lobby the legislature to strengthen our drunk driving laws and end the catch-and-release program for repeat drunk drivers. This approach killed Wade. His death was senseless, needless and preventable.”

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Franck and his wife want Iowa lawmakers to move forward on a proposed 24/7 Sobriety Program that could require drunk driving offenders to check in twice daily to take a breath test or wear alcohol-monitoring bracelets. The Iowa Senate passed a measure this year aimed at creating pilot programs in some counties, but it stalled in the Iowa House in the face of opposition from groups such as the Justice Reform Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.

Gregary Franck said he believes such a program "probably would have kept Jonathan Leyva Rodriguez off the road."

Though his criminal past was not fully revealed to jurors at trial, Leyva Rodriguez faced eight drug and traffic-related violations in the 16 months leading up the crash, forcing a probation officer to once write that he "continues to engage in (self)-destructing behavior that places in jeopardy the safety of the community."

Jan Franck said she’d spent many sleepless nights in the months since the crash hoping for a guilty verdict.

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District Court Judge Paul Scott read the verdict 4:05 p.m. in front of a full courtroom, less than two hours after jurors began their deliberations.

Gregary Franck was a well known sales manager at Kyle’s Bike Shop in Ankeny. News of the verdict was heralded on social media accounts managed by the Des Moines Bike Collective and BikeIowa.com, a popular website that covers cycling issues across the state.

The courtroom was silent as the guilty verdicts were read on all six counts, which included: vehicular homicide, second-offense OWI, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, two counts of leaving the scene of a personal injury accident and driving while barred. The late Franck’s girlfriend, Jess Rundlett, let out a sigh of relief after the judge finished speaking.

Leyva Rodriguez will face a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for the vehicular homicide conviction alone at a sentencing hearing scheduled for June 17. His defense attorney, Daniel Northfield, declined to speak with reporters after the verdict, as did two of Leyva Rodriguez’s family members who were in the courtroom.

Polk County prosecutors built a case during the weeklong trial that Leyva Rodriguez was driving his girlfriend's white Chevrolet Equinox on Grand Avenue around 10 a.m. the day of the collision. Witnesses riding near Franck testified they saw the vehicle drift out of its lane and strike Franck, who was riding in the organized Urban Assault ride with other cyclists at the time.

Police were able to trace the vehicle to Leyva Rodriguez after a witness to the collision memorized the SUV's license plate number and turned it over to police. A state of Iowa criminalist testified Thursday that blood drawn more than three hours after the crash was tested in a lab and showed Leyva Rodriuez's blood alcohol content was at .192 percent, more than twice the legal amount to drive.

Witnesses also testified that they never saw the SUV's brake lights flash before Leyva Rodriguez fled from the crash.

In his closing argument Friday afternoon, Assistant Polk County Attorney Olu Salami told jurors that it was impossible that Leyva Rodriguez could have hit cyclists in broad daylight without knowing he did so, even if he was drunk. Leyva Rodriguez's driver's license was suspended at the time, and he fled to avoid trouble, Salami said.

"He knew he hit several cyclists — he hit him so hard that this fell off his vehicle,” he said, holding up a silver Chevrolet grille that was found at the scene. “To mangle up the bike with the tires the way we saw them in all those pictures — you know. The question is, do you want to get caught? And he made the choice to leave the scene and not get caught.”

Franck, 41, died in a hospital two days after the collision from his injuries.

Jurors heard no testimony during the trial about where or with whom Leyva Rodriguez might have been drinking in the hours before the crash. In his own closing, Northfield argued that no witnesses at the crash scene were able to positively identify Leyva Rodriguez as the driver of the SUV.

The defense attorney also suggested that if Leyva Rodriguez was as intoxicated as prosecutors claim, he might not have been able to tell he struck a cyclist.

“If (a person is) that drunk, how could they actually even know they hit a person," he said. "And second, how could they know that the person was injured if you’re that drunk? How could they know what they hit at all?"

Both Leyva Rodriguez and his attorney were relatively quiet throughout the trial. Leyva Rodriguez declined to testify when given a chance on Thursday, and Northfield called no witnesses to testify and presented no evidence to back up his defense.

The collision also injured Gregory Strub and Julee Peterson, who were riding near Franck in the Urban Assault ride. Outside the courtroom, Strub said he drove by the accident scene on Grand Avenue just 15 minutes before arriving at the courthouse to hear the verdict.

“I sent a prayer up to Wade,” he said.