Jeffrey Parenti was driving at speeds of nearly 100 miles per hour one October night in 2010. It was a night that would never be forgotten for two different families. The 45-year-old man was riding his Harley-Davidson down US-1 when he failed to negotiate a curve at excessive speed, which ended in the fatality of his passenger and fiance.
Parenti was no stranger to the court system. The 2010 incident was his 12th felony conviction. This trial was his second for this particular accident because the first had ended in a mistrial due to the expert key witness for the defense not attending the first trial. The witness was reported to have had an emergency and wasn't able to be present.
The victim, Linda Kolar, had been friends with Parenti for some 20 years before the couple had begun dating. Parenti said, "I really liked Linda a lot. We planned on being married."
Parents of both the accused and the victim attended the trial and sentencing. The defense attorney for Parenti read a statement from Carol Parenti, his mother, stating how much the family loved Kolar and would "miss her beautiful smile and vivacious personality. I don't know what possessed them to take the motorcycle that day."
Kolar's father, Richard Danhoffer, was also in attendance for the sentencing. Even though Parenti took the stand and apologized to Kolar's family for the loss of their daughter, Danhoffer asked Circuit Judge J. David Walsh to sentence Parenti to the maximum.
"He is a 10-time convicted felon," Danhoffer said. "That in itself should be enough. Now, he’s a 12-time convicted felon. I would ask that there be no leniency and that he would serve whatever that sentence is to the fullest."
The judge agreed, calling Parenti a habitual felony offender and sentenced him to 30 years.