Vehicle was traveling 120 mph when it struck and killed Chesterfield Twp. woman – Macomb Daily

Macomb County prosecutors say a man was driving over 120 miles per hour and was so reckless that they added murder charges to him for causing a car crash in Chesterfield Township last January that left a woman dead.

Matthew Reynolds, 40, of Lenox Township, is charged with first-degree murder, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, lying to police and failing to use an ignition interlock device. He was transferred to Macomb District Court last month after a preliminary hearing in 42-II District Court in Chesterfield Township.

Jessica Zamora, 39, of Chesterfield Township, the mother of a 13-year-old girl, was killed in the accident on January 26 on Gratiot Avenue north of 25 Mile Road.

According to an accident reconstructionist, Reynolds was driving a black 2004 Ford F250 northbound on Gratiot at an estimated 120 to 125 mph, weaving through traffic, when he crashed his vehicle into the rear of a silver Kia Rio driven by Zamora at 53 to 54 mph.

Reynolds was originally charged with three crimes other than murder, but prosecutors later added the murder charge and argued that Visiting Judge Dennis LeDuc maintain that charge at the preliminary examination.

There was evidence that Reynolds had consumed some alcohol in the hours before the accident, but he was not charged with a DUI offense.

Macomb Assistant District Attorney Richard Nelson said Reynolds acted “maliciously” and thereby created motive for murder.

“You are knowingly creating a situation where death or serious bodily injury is the likely result if you drive over 120 miles per hour on Gratiot Street at 9 p.m. while weaving through traffic,” Nelson argued before LeDuc.

Before his verdict, LeDuc said he was “stunned” by the photos from the accident scene, which showed that “there is virtually nothing left of the Kia.”

“To a layperson, that’s an extremely, extremely high speed considering the driver was operating the vehicle (the Kia) at 52 to 54 miles per hour,” LeDuc said, calling Reynolds’ actions a “wanton and intentional disregard” for the safety of others.

Guest judge Dennis LeDuc presided over the case.MACOMB DAILY PHOTO

Due to the pickup’s allegedly high speed, the vehicles covered a distance of 240 to 300 meters after the impact, police said.

Accident reconstruction expert Chad Lindstrom of the Michigan State Police said the circumstances were similar to those on highways in the Detroit metropolitan area.

“That’s a significant distance traveled after impact,” he said. When he received the information, he said, his reaction was, “Wow, that’s typical information I would get for a typical highway crash,” where speeds are often 100 miles per hour or more.

Lindstrom said that due to the rudimentary nature of the F250’s “black box,” he was unable to determine its impact speed. However, he was able to determine the pickup truck’s speed based on the speed of the Kia, the weight of both vehicles and the change in speed of both vehicles at impact.

The speed limit at this point on Gratiot is 55 miles per hour.

Reynolds’ attorney, JT Bowden, countered Lindstrom about the speed of the F250, saying he did not believe that model of vehicle could travel that fast.

Lindstrom said he believed it was possible.

Nelson added as part of his argument that the vehicle may have been modified.

The vehicle was referred to once as a “Super Diesel” and another time as a “Super Duty.” Another police officer referred to it as a “Harley Davidson” edition.

Another witness, Shawn Crowl, testified that he was a passenger in a vehicle his wife was driving northbound on Gratiot, south of the accident scene, shortly before the 9:15 p.m. accident when a black Ford F250 passed her vehicle at excessive speeds in the left lane and cut her vehicle off as it merged into the right lane, forcing his wife to slam on her brakes.

“It was loud and it scared my wife,” Crowl said on the witness stand. “He passed in the left lane, then changed lanes very quickly and cut right off after crossing. The truck was loud and it was unexpected. We didn’t even see it coming. It just came by and, boom, it crossed the road right in front of us. … It almost hit us.”

He said the vehicle was traveling “at least 65 miles per hour,” although he believed the speed limit – which his wife was traveling at – was 45 miles per hour, when in reality it was 55 miles per hour.

The couple arrived at the scene moments later. Crowl said his wife had to swerve to avoid hitting the remains of the Kia. His wife parked the car and called 911 while he ran to the scene and found Zamora in the driver’s seat of the Kia on the road. His wife, who arrived second, could no longer find a pulse in her wrist, he said.

Crowl said he noticed that the truck that had just passed them was in a ditch and that a person had run out of the truck and west across Gratiot “into the weeds, into the woods.”

Around that time, Reynolds’ fiancée received a phone call from him asking her to pick him up from a gas station because he had been involved in an accident, according to Raquel Szolt, who attended a gathering outside a house next to Reynolds’ home on 27 Mile Road.

Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Richard Nelson pleads guilty in Macomb County District Court earlier this month in another case.MACOMB DAILY PHOTO

Reynolds did not want to drive because she had been drinking alcohol, so she rode in a car with another woman to a Valero gas station about a half-mile from the accident scene, according to Szolt.

Szolt said she noticed that when Reynolds reached the vehicle, he was not wearing shoes, was “wet” and was bleeding from his head.

He was “disturbed and drunk,” she said. “His answers to the women’s questions made no sense. He smelled of alcohol.”

When he reached his neighbor’s house, Reynolds acted like “a madman,” she said.

“He wasn’t speaking in complete sentences,” she said. “His words didn’t make sense. He started banging his head and fists against the door.”

Reynolds and his fiancée left the event to go to his neighbor’s house, she said. She returned some time later, Szolt said.

“She was shaking and crying,” she said. “She was just very upset. She just hugged me and whispered in my ear, ‘There’s been a death.'”

Szolt said she called police the next day after learning of the incident.

Police had already identified Reynolds as a possible driver by that point, Chesterfield Township Police Officer Jason Kline testified. He said the F250 was registered to a woman with the last name Reynolds, and officers found Matthew Reynolds’ name and address on paperwork found inside.

When they went to Reynolds’ house around midnight that same evening, less than three hours after the accident, Reynolds denied driving and claimed the truck must have been stolen from his driveway.

“He said that as far as he knew, he was sleeping, we just woke him up and the vehicle was parked in the driveway,” Kline said.

Reynolds “had a strong odor of intoxication” and had difficulty maintaining his balance, Kline said.

He was initially willing to come outside to talk, but was uncooperative.

“He asked me why I was in Lenox Township and said, ‘Get off the property,'” Kline said.

Kline said a woman who had a 13-year-old daughter was killed in the accident.

“He was withdrawn, broke down, teary-eyed, and told me he needed to go back to his house for 35 to 40 minutes to collect his thoughts and then he was going to contact the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office and file a report for vehicle theft,” Kline said, adding that he believes no reports were filed.

In the three hours before the accident, Reynolds drank an estimated “two beers and two shots” at the Hamlin Pub on the corner of 23 Mile Road and Gratiot Avenue, according to witness Brian Castle, who met him there around 6 p.m.

Castle testified that Reynolds did not appear drunk when he left about three hours later.

“He seemed fine,” Castle said.

Bowden pleaded for the lesser charges, saying his client’s murder charge was “grossly exaggerated” because there were no other factors besides excessive speed.

“You can’t take that step if all you can show is speeding,” he said, adding that the murder charge should be replaced with a charge of reckless driving causing death or manslaughter, both of which carry a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Intentional murder is punishable by a life sentence, and escape is punishable by a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

At the time of the crash, Reynolds should not have been driving unless he passed a breathalyzer test with an ignition interlock device, which was not present in the F250, Kline said. His license was either suspended or revoked for several years for violating an order requiring the ignition interlock device to be installed in his vehicle.

Last year, he went to court to regain his driver’s license after it was revoked by the State Department because he had been convicted of drug offenses two or more times in the past seven years. The State Department had opposed the reinstatement.

According to his driver’s license records, Reynolds was convicted of driving under the influence in 2005 in Shelby Township’s 41-A District Court. In 2011, he was found guilty on a plea deal of driving under the influence and failure to stop after an accident involving property damage.

Reynolds will remain in jail pending $300,000 bail and is scheduled to appear before District Judge Matthew Sabaugh for a pretrial hearing on July 11.

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