On Sept. 29, a jury in Fairfax County Circuit Court found
Quentin J. Jones guilty of speeding, drunk driving and killing a Centreville man by crashing into his car. The victim was Soo Chang Yang, 40, and jurors recommended Jones serve 36 years in prison; sentencing is Dec. 3.
But that's not all for Jones, 25, of 19013 Queen Drive in Triangle. He'd had a previous brush with the law and, on June 8, 2001, he was sentenced to two years, eight months in prison for a Dec. 9, 2001 offense of unauthorized use of a vehicle. And the judge sentencing him, Arthur Vierreg, suspended all but one year of that time.
After Jones' recent
However, now that Jones has been convicted of further crimes, he had to return again to court last Friday, Oct. 8, for a revocation hearing — meaning that some or all of that suspended time could be added back to his sentence.
At the hearing, public defender William Edwards spoke on his client's behalf, saying that he's been "actively involved with his church and his family." And he noted that Jones' mother was present in the courtroom in support of her son.
But there was no getting away from Jones' reckless and lawless behavior — or the fact that he'd continued to use alcohol, after Vierreg had previously warned him about it.
"Your honor, at his [2001] sentencing, one of the things you told him to do was to get [substance-abuse] treatment — and now somebody's dead," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney John Murphy. "I would suggest that there's nothing more to be done with a case like this, except to impose every day of that [suspended] time and make it run consecutively to [the sentence Jones will receive in December]."
Edwards countered that "36 years is adequate for the totality of this case." He asked the judge to "consider imposing just a small part of the [suspended] sentence" and take Jones off of the probation he was on from his earlier crime.
Jones then stood and told Vierreg, "I'm sorry for coming back in front of you." Then without further ado, the judge replied, "Mr. Jones, your probation is revoked and your suspended sentence is ordered placed into execution." It means that, besides whatever sentence he receives in December, he'll have an additional year and eight months to serve.