UTAH STATE PRISON — Prosecutors described Shane Roy Gillette as a "time bomb" when he was sentenced for the death of Julie Ann Jorgenson.

On Tuesday, Gillette told a member of Utah Board of Pardons and Parole that he was sorry for what he did and has made the changes necessary — including regularly taking medication for his mental illness — to lead a productive life.

"I humbly ask for a chance, that’s all I can do. I know I can do right and stay on the right track,” he said in a recording of the hearing obtained by KSL.

On Jan. 6, 2011, the day before Jorgenson's 27th birthday, Gillette — who was not wearing shoes, socks or a shirt — scraped away a tiny hole in the frost on his windshield, drove 70 mph on a Salt Lake City street and slammed into Jorgenson's vehicle at the intersection of 500 South and 300 East. Jorgenson, who was stopped at the traffic light, was killed when her car burst into flames.

Gillette was diagnosed as being bipolar as a child but stopped taking medication at 18. On the night of the fatal crash, he said he had not been sleeping for a week, was self-medicating with marijuana and was stressed over family issues and not having a job.

"Everything just came to hell all at once,” he said. "I wasn’t thinking right, I know that."

Gillette had a delusional episode that night. In his mind, "I was trying to get away from somebody who came to the house and was trying to get to me,” he told parole board member Denise Porter.

Gillette was sentenced in 2014 to two terms of zero to five years in prison for manslaughter and operating a vehicle negligently causing injury or death. A judge ordered the sentences to run consecutively, meaning he could serve up to 10 years.

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A mother of a girl taken too soon, a girl taken the day before her 27th birthday and before her mother could visit and teach her to bake banana bread, had a simple request for the judge Monday.

He spent more than a year at the Utah State Hospital after he was arrested. Porter noted that Gillette, now 41, had already served every day of his manslaughter sentence, which was now expired. If he serves all of his second sentence, he will be released in 2021.

Members of both Jorgenson and Gillette's families were present at Tuesday's hearing. Michael Waters, Jorgenson's stepfather, asked the board to make Gillette serve a full 10 years.

"This case involving my stepdaughter, I look at it as Shane has never been really held accountable for everything he’s done in the past. He’s gotten off on serious charges in the past. And I can’t recall from the court hearing or not if he really ever said he was sorry," he said. "I didn't feel he really expressed to me or my family his regret for what he did. He understood that he killed somebody, but there was no remorse I felt expressed to my family."

Gillette responded by saying he was sorry.

"Theres nothing I can do, no time, that would replace her or pay her family for any kind of grief. My heart goes out to them to the fullest, and it always has. And this whole thing has just been kind of hard to grasp for me, ’specially, because that’s not who I am. I’m not a bad person. It wasn’t intentional. I've never had any kind of malice toward anyone like that,” he said.

Gillette was also diagnosed as being schizoaffective while in prison. He currently takes his medication daily. Porter said during the hearing that Gillette had done "remarkably well" since being in prison and has not had any disciplinary violations.

However, she stressed several times that failing to take care of his mental health issues whenever he is released was not an option.

"Unfortunately, you are very dangerous without your meds,” she said. "Make sure your mental health is never off the rails again, because someone has already paid the ultimate price for that."

Porter pressed Gillette about what he planned to do when he faced difficult situations again.

"There are going to be hard times in life. How are you going to function in a way that’s more productive than in the reason you’re sitting here?” she asked.

"Just stay positive and stay on track. That’s all I can do. Just keep a good head, and keep my head down and hunker through it,” he said.

When asked what he thinks should happen with his sentence, Gillette told Porter, "I know the family wants me to be incarcerated to the fullest. That’s understandable for sure. But I don’t think, honestly, it's going to make much of a difference as far as my rehabilitation goes."

The full five member board will decide in the next couple of weeks whether to grant parole.

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