A Message For Travis Smith One Year After He Killed Josh Neely Who was Riding His E-Bike in Washoe Valley
Yesterday marked one year since Joshua Neely was killed at the age of 29 riding on his E-bike when he was crashed into at night on Eastlake Boulevard in Washoe Valley.
Earlier this year, the driver Travis Smith was sentenced at the age of 43 to a maximum 26 years in prison in the fatal hit and run after previously pleading guilty to a duty to stop at the scene of a crash involving death and reckless driving resulting in death.
"During the investigation, deputies spoke with several witnesses who had seen Smith speeding at close to 100mph immediately before the crash, and learned Smith had crossed into an oncoming lane to pass a car," the DA's office noted when announcing the sentencing.
"After Smith came back into his lane, he hit the cyclist, who had been riding an E-bike on the right side of the road. However, instead of stopping, Smith kept driving. Several people tried to stop the defendant, with one witness trying to follow him. At the scene, deputies found pieces of Smith’s car, identifying the make and model. The following day, Smith called 9-1-1 and admitted to the hit and run. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation found that Smith was driving at speeds between 82 and 92mph at the time he struck the victim in the area of a 35mph speed limit," the press release indicated.
Smith will be eligible for parole after eight years, and in March, less than two months after the sentencing, he submitted an appeal.
“One year of unbelievably painful grief. One year of watching your daughter cry because she wants to see her daddy, and heaven just isn’t a place we can visit,” Chelsea Lloyd the mother of Neely’s daughter wrote to Our Town Reno.
“I was prepared to let go. But now the man who killed you and left you on the side of the road to die alone is appealing his sentence,” she wrote in a message, sending along photos of Neeley when he was still alive, his makeshift memorial and drawings made since his killing by his daughter and niece.
“One thing the judge repeated during sentencing was something I said in during my victim impact statement, that Travis still has the opportunity to one day be reunited with his family, but Joshua can never come home.
And if this somehow reaches Travis, I want you to hear me. Stop. Stop dragging us through this pain. Stop forcing us to relive this over and over again. Do your time, and let us have whatever peace we can possibly find after losing Josh.
You deserve at least eight years. You stole a lifetime from Joshua, a lifetime with his daughter, with his family, and with everyone who loved him. I will never forgive the pain you have caused me and my two daughters. I dream about Josh constantly, but he never talks to me. I just want him to tell me he’s okay, wherever he is, and that one day I’ll see him again.
I hate what you have done to us, Travis. But more than anything, I wish I never had to think about you again. Please drop the appeal and let us try to move forward with the little peace we have left.”
She ended her message saying she had felt disrespected during sentencing with how people reacted in the courtroom.
“There was nothing funny about the pain that was in that courtroom that day,” she concluded in her message.
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