Dickson man sentenced to 55 years in fatal wreck with teen

Chris Gadd, Nashville Tennessean
·2 min read
Randy Reynolds
Randy Reynolds

A Dickson man was found guilty of vehicular homicide and sentenced to 55 years in prison for a fatal wreck with a Dickson County teenager two years ago.

Randy Reynolds, 57, took the stand at the sentencing hearing Monday to plead for a lesser sentence repeating that he “wasn’t the driver” in the collision that killed Irma Lopez Ortiz, 19, of Vanleer, in October 2019.

Dickson County Circuit Court Judge David Wolfe said state law allows him to consider if Reynolds had accepted responsibility during sentencing.

“Mr. Reynolds has never admitted responsibility for this action,” Wolfe said. “He wants to blame someone else. Some phantom driver he claims was driving the vehicle. A person who was never seen at the scene, who was never found at the scene. No one drove that vehicle but Mr. Reynolds.”

Wolfe said that “speaks volumes to me about the sentence to be imposed in this case.”

Irma Ortiz was killed on Highway 70 near Montgomery Bell State Park in Dickson County when the 2016 Nissan Versa she was driving was hit head on by a 1999 Ford F-250 driven by Reynolds, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol report.

Following the wreck, Reynolds left the scene and a manhunt followed involving a dog search team and THP helicopter. State park rangers discovered Reynolds a brief time later after the multi-agency search.

Also at Monday’s hearing, Irma’s brother Marco Ortiz read a victim impact statement.

“(Irma) was my second mom and my best friend,” Ortiz said. “She was my role model. I aspired to be just like her. She was everything to me.”

Reynolds sentence is as follows:

Aggravated vehicular homicide - To serve 40 years in prison

Vehicular homicide - To serve 12 years in prison

Simple Possession - 1 year

Leaving scene of accident - 6 months in jail

Evading arrest - 1 year

Driving on revoked license - 1 year

Related: Teen killed in Dickson Highway 70 wreck identified; driver charged

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dickson man sentenced to 55 years in fatal wreck with teen