Emotional families plead for reduced sentence — and the maximum sentence
Members of the Hernandez family leave the courthouse Wednesday without comment following the sentencing of Richard Ferguson, who was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 37 years in prison, as prosecutors say culpably negligent in allowing his unlicensed son to drive a family car and kill their mother and children in a September 2023 crash. (Photo/Ken Jackson)
The father of the teen driver who ran a stop sign in Poinciana that killed three children ages 1 to 11 and their grandmother was sentenced Wednesday to 37 years in prison on four charges of manslaughter.
Richard Ferguson, 70, was convicted in November 2023 after prosecutors said he allowed his son Ri’Shard Ferguson, then 15, to drive a Chevrolet Impala the night of Sept. 3, 2023. According to FHP reports the vehicle was traveling over 75 mph in the 30 mph zone on Laurel Avenue when it ran a stop sign at San Miguel Road and collided with the vehicle carrying Trinidad Hernandez, 50, and her grandchildren 11-year-old Miley Cruz, 9-year-old Marven Cruz, and 1-year-old Anayari Cruz. They were are killed in the crash.
Ri'Shard Ferguson remains in juvenile detection until he is 19, according to his family. At trial, Richard Ferguson testified that he did not give Ri’Shard permission to take the car on that September night.
“I did not give my son the keys, I did not give my son permission to take off. Three witnesses said I didn’t give him the keys.” he said on the stand, before being found guilty by the jury.
Judge Keith Carsten, noting the guidelines of the case dictated the sentences of 444 months or life in prison, chose the former. The elder Ferguson, who reportedly has Stage IV cancer, will likely spend the rest of his life in the prison system.
Defense attorney Caleb Robinson asked the court for "downward departure" in sentencing of stringent community control and 25 years of probation, allowing for access to medication and cancer treatment, which he said had only been provided while incarcerated when his wife brought it to the courthouse; using Ferguson's health challenges, which also include heart disease, as a legal basis.
Emotional members of both families attended Wednesday's sentencing, providing testimony and impact statements; all left the court without speaking with reporters. Ferguson's family told of a man who treated nieces and stepsons like his own children, filling the role of a "helpful, loving father, a compassionate provider who raised nieces, nephews and grandchildren with a clean slate."
Ferguson himself took the stand, expressing sorrow and remorse for what took place.
"My home, my heart, my life. Are filled with silence and grief. I carry that weight inside of me every moment," he said. "Not a single day goes by without me wishing I can undo what happened.
"My only hope is that my words show the sincere of my sorrow, and the deepest of my responsible responsibility for this tragedy. I am sorry that I played a part in them losing their loved ones. I can't give those lives back to those people. I should have went after my son and stopped my son ... Why didn't I? Because I took the I took the lazy way out by saying, okay, I'll call him versus I'm already in a vehicle, go get him."
While Trinidad's widower Angel Hernandez and daughter Anissa Hernandez spoke emotionally about losing their wife, mother, nieces, nephew and grandchildren, Sabrina Hernandez, the children's mother and Trinidad's daughter spoke with another emotion — pointed anger.
"There is absolutely no human experience that replicates the pain of a mother losing a child. To hear about struggling and survival, it doesn't even amount to the struggling that my family has to deal with," Sabrina said. "This man lived a full life that my children will never get to live, so it makes me sick to sit here and hear stuff like that. I'll never dance with my son at his wedding and watch my daughter do cheerleading. I will miss out on every experience a parent should not have to miss out on.
"I'm angry listening to the sob stories about health; it doesn't matter if their health is good or bad, you still did something wrong. You're guy's family is still alive. If you want to hug him, you can hug him. If I want to hug my children, I have to hug a vase that's full of a pile of ashes that sit in my damn living room.
"I'll never be able to lay eyes on them again. Until the Lord takes me. And so I take no pity on this man."
