Note: This article has been corrected from its original form on publication day. To read the correction, scroll to the end of the story.
Aaron Vernon Heyer pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon for failing to stop after he hit and killed University student Brian Reams with his car last March on Hilyard Street.
Heyer, who will be sentenced at 9 a.m. on Nov. 16, accepted a plea deal on Wednesday and agreed to 19 months in prison. His license will be revoked for five years following his jail sentence.
The 22-year-old Heyer was arrested June 11 after a three-month investigation by the Eugene Police Department.
In the early morning hours of March 4, Reams was walking home when he crossed Hilyard Street at 15th Avenue. He was hit by a Cadillac sedan just as he stepped into the intersection. Heyer, who was driving the sedan, sped away.
“I was just scared,” Heyer said on Wednesday in the hallway of the Lane County Courthouse after his court appearance. “I panicked.”
Reams’ friends tended to him in the intersection, but he later died at Sacred Heart Medical Center.
Heyer said after he drove away he realized that he should go back, but he got lost. Heyer, who lives in Coos Bay, was in town visiting a friend.
The morning after the accident, hundreds of Reams’ brothers from Beta Theta Pi fraternity surrounded him at the hospital. Two days after he died, hundreds of students filled McArthur Court for a memorial ceremony.
There was not sufficient evidence to indicate that Heyer was intoxicated during the accident, which is one of the factors in why he wasn’t charged with homicide, Assistant District Attorney David Vill said.
On Wednesday, Reams’ sister, Caroline Wight,sat with three of Reams’ friends in a brick hallway inside the Lane County Courthouse.
“Our family is just anxious for the sentencing to be over so we can start focusing on different ways to remember Brian,” she said.
Wight wore a T-shirt from Beta Theta Pi, the fraternity Reams belonged to, that displayed Reams’ personal slogan, “Play like a champion today,” on the sleeve. About two weeks after Reams died, Wight got his initials tattooed on her right wrist.
As the four chatted somberly in the hallway outside the courtroom, Wight suddenly stood and introduced herself to Heyer, who appeared at the top of the stairs outside the courtroom.
“I’m Caroline. I’m Brian’s sister,” she said to him.
Wight told Heyer she wouldn’t be in Eugene for his sentencing, but that her mother would be.
“I’m sorry for everything that’s happened,” he replied.
Wight returned to her seat and a friend rubbed her back. “That took balls,” the friend said.
“I just wanted to know … ” Wight trailed off, “what he sounded like.”
Heyer’s official charge is failure to perform the duties of a driver to an injured person (resulting in the death of the victim), which is a class B felony.
After the plea deal, Heyer apologized for what he had done.
“There’s really no excuse for it,” he said. “It’s something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life.”
Correction: This article originally reported that Heyer was not intoxicated at the time of the crash, however there is not sufficient evidence to prove or disprove that fact.