- Charmayne Huerta Guzman received a prison sentence on Monday for murder and causing a crash that led to serious injuries.
- Family of Lennyn Lilic, a 5-year-old girl killed in the DUI crash, spoke about how significant the loss feels to them.
- Judge Stephen Nelson emphasized Guzman's public safety risk and ordered consecutive sentences.
WEST JORDAN — Semir Lilic was emotional as he talked about his role as a father to protect his children and how that was taken from him.
"I just heard tires … in that split second, there was nothing I could do," he said.
He was emotional as he described thinking in that moment that he and his two kids would all be killed, and waking up scared to look in the back seat. He said he heard his 7-year-old son cry but did not hear his daughter.
"I look in the corner of my eye, and I just see her lifeless," he recalled.
He referred to two large photos of 5-year-old Lennyn Lilic taped up in the courtroom — one of her in a cheetah print outfit which he said is the last photo he took of her before the fatal crash on Jan. 14, 2024 in Kearns.
Charmayne Huerta Guzman, 27, of Kearns, was sentenced Monday to a term of one to 15 years in prison for murder, a second-degree felony, and three terms of zero to five years for negligently operating a vehicle resulting in serious injury, a third-degree felony. She was sentenced to time already served for multiple misdemeanor charges and infractions for negligently operating a vehicle, reckless driving, driving on a denied license and traffic violations.
Guzman was driving about 77 mph on a wet road in a 35 mph zone when she lost control of her vehicle during a turn and crossed onto the opposite side of the road, striking Lilic's car head-on. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.241%, almost five times the legal limit, charging documents state.
She pleaded guilty to the charges on the fourth day of her jury trial.
Third District Judge Stephen Nelson told Guzman, "You represent a significant public safety risk right now," after ordering the sentences to run consecutively. He said this case will stick with him, and he will remember Samir Lilic and his family.
"It is my sincere hope that for each of you the process that we have concluded today will bring you and your family a very small measure of closure," he said.
Semir Lilic said no one understands how he feels as he talked about the following week of bad medical news before he made "the hardest choice of my life" to pull the plug on his daughter's life support. A choice he said he was forced to make because of Guzman's choices.
"I wish somebody could feel my pain, what I go through every day. It's hard man, it's hard," he said.
Guzman said it devastates her that the little girl will not get to go home to her family when Guzman herself will.
"There are no words to share how sorry I am," she said.
Guzman's attorney, Grant Miller, said she was prepared for any sentence from the court and did not want to make any request, but as her attorney, he argued for concurrent sentences. Miller talked about Guzman's history of drug abuse and said she had a partner whose deportation "sent her into a nosedive."
Deputy Salt Lake County attorney Jennifer Zeleny said Guzman was "taking mind-numbingly unnecessary and stupid risk after risk during this drive," saying she was creating about as dangerous of a risk as possible.
"When someone decides to get drunk, high — or in this case both — and drive, we put complete strangers in mortal danger. They present a danger to the entire public," Zeleny said.
Asking for consecutive sentences, she said Lennyn is not the only victim of Guzman's actions. Her father and brother and a passenger in Guzman's car suffered physical injuries, and other family members and crash responders have emotional injuries. She said multiple members of a church nearby that had services ending that Sunday afternoon helped the family.
"We can fix broken bones, but we can't fix broken hearts. ... No sentence the court imposes, not even if we were sentencing with a life top, would come close to feeling like justice," she said.
Megan Mabey, Lennyn's mother, wore a Mothers Against Drunk Driving shirt with a picture on the back as she spoke about the loss of her "mini-me," a girl who was eager to learn. She said Lennyn always knew when someone was sad or needed a hug.
She told Guzman she hopes to forgive her one day and can't imagine the heaviness she carries.
"I hope you change lives with your experience and share your story to make something beautiful happen, because Lennyn doesn't get that chance. She did create something beautiful in the short time that she was here, and she deserved longer," she said.
Two of Lennyn's half-siblings spoke about how their family feels incomplete without her, and how something is missing from their lives because she is gone.
"It's kind of a pain that doesn't go away, it just follows you," Camden Mabey said.
He said his sister's life mattered, and he wants her to be remembered "as more than a case number."
"She was loved, she brought light to our lives and deserved more time," he said.
