A Burnsville, Minn. woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday, March 24 in Dakota County District Court for her role in the deaths of two former Prescott residents, Tayler Garza and Dalton …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in, using the login form, below, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account and connect your subscription to it by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
A Burnsville, Minn. woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday, March 24 in Dakota County District Court for her role in the deaths of two former Prescott residents, Tayler Garza and Dalton Ford. However, she will only serve 10.
Camille Dennis-Bond and her younger brother, Leon Bond were drag racing on County Road 42 in Burnsville around 10:30 a.m. April 4, 2021 when Ford and Garza were on their way to get coffee before heading to Prescott to join their families for Easter festivities; they never made it. Ford had begun a left turn, unaware that the two vehicles driven by the Bonds were travelling in excess of 100 miles per hour. The vehicle driven by Leon Bond nearly split the Ford/Garza vehicle in half; the collision killed both Ford and Garza.
Leon Bond, who was 80 days from his 18th birthday, was tried as a juvenile, while his older sister was 19 at the time and charged as an adult. Both Ford, who had moved to Burnsville, and Garza, who had moved to Woodbury, were 22 at the time of the accident. Ford and Garza were middle school sweethearts and their plans to get married and have a family were cut short nearly two years ago.
The courtroom opened at 9 a.m. and quickly filled to capacity with friends and members of all three families waiting to hear victim impact statements before Judge Tim Wermager made his decision on sentencing. The witnesses in the room sat silent for an hour and a half while folks spoke of the things that Garza and Ford will not be part of, how the families’ experiences are forever changed due to the actions of Dennis-Bond.
The morning was filled with sadness, no matter the outcome. Two families each lost a child forever and another family has lost two children for years. The devastation felt in that courtroom was heartbreaking. The pleas of mothers on behalf of their children wrought with despair were haunting. Even the bailiffs were struggling to hold their composure; it was the definition of sadness.
The prosecution team of Tori Stewart and David Hemming sat stoically during the entire three-hour process, calling impact statement readers one after another. Defense attorney and current Minnesota State Sen. Bobby Joe Champion was constantly checking his phone and periodically making notes for his last opportunity to speak. Judge Wermager frequently looked around the room, watching the responses of not only the audience, but Dennis-Bond and Champion.
Dennis-Bond’s mother, Crystal Bond, was slightly reactive throughout the morning. For most of the impact statements, she sat quietly until she had her chance to speak. Every once in a while, she would glance across the aisle at the Garza and Ford families.
The most chilling aspect was watching Dennis-Bond. She sat through every impact statement appearing to be unaffected hearing how her actions have changed the lives of nearly everyone in that courtroom, plus hundreds more who knew Garza and Ford. She did not appear to react when her own mother spoke on her behalf. The only time she showed any emotion was when she was given an opportunity to speak.
Judge Wermager meticulously dissected and discussed every option he had regarding the sentencing of Dennis-Bond. He was disgruntled at the fact that Leon Bond was tried as a juvenile, implying if he had been tried as an adult, the sentencing for Dennis-Bond would have been much clearer. He was also hopeful that this tragedy would serve as a reminder for others and prevent more like it.
“In my 40 years of being involved in legal business and various aspects, I’ve never been involved in a case that has affected so many different people in so many different ways,” said Judge Wermager. “I go back 50 years ago to drivers training and remember hearing two words. You’ve all heard it, every 15-year-old has heard it in drivers’ education. Two words. Speed kills. Speed kills is not a theory, speed kills is not a cliché, it is a fact. Sadly, this is one more tragic example of that fact. If anything, that comes out of this, I hope that those who think drag racing or driving at excessive speeds has no impact, will look at this case and slow down.”
Dennis-Bond was convicted in December of two counts of third-degree murder and two counts of criminal vehicular homicide, one count of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm and one count of careless driving. For the two counts of murder in the third degree, Dennis-Bond was sentenced to prison for 150 months and 180 months respectively, with said terms running concurrent to each other. She was also convicted of one count of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm for which she was sentenced to 38 months in prison concurrent to the above.
Because the sentences run concurrently, not consecutively, Dennis-Bond received an actual sentence of 180 months with a credit of time already served of 107 days. Of the 180 months, she will serve two-thirds of that in prison, which is 120 months, or 10 years. Once released, she will serve five years on probation where she is to remain law-abiding or she will return to prison for the remainder of the sentence.
As the judge prepared to read the official sentencing, additional bailiffs entered the courtroom to maintain civility between the sides. The Bond family was released to the common space first. They gathered to the left of the courtroom door and Dennis-Bond’s significant other could not contain himself, screaming “Why?” along with some expletives. The family tried to usher him out quickly and a few officers were right behind to keep the peace.
Outside the courthouse, the Ford family, dad Jim, mom Veronica and brothers Dylan and Dayne stopped to give the Journal their thoughts on the entire process and the sentencing.
“Sitting in the trial was hard, just listening to all the witness statements and finding out all of the details. What occurred immediately afterwards. We didn't know any of that until months later. Actually, what took place at the scene and who assisted and did what. It took Burnsville Police six months to pull together the report that they did and the Burnsville Police Department stated that Dalton and Tayler were true victims. That they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, that they did absolutely nothing wrong to assist in them getting ripped from this world. It was totally and 100% on Leon and Camille Bond. So, sentencing for today... You know, if Leon wouldn't have been charged as a juvenile, Camille probably would have gotten the full 25 years. But because of Judge Joseph Carter, and the poor decision he made to certify Leon as a juvenile 80 days shy of 18, and a double murder charge, put us here. Camille gets 15 years, and she will end up serving 10. No amount of time is going to be good enough for us, because it doesn't bring back Dalton and Tayler. Originally, we thought with her not having any previous adult felonies that it might have been five years’ probation and a slap on the hand. So, the fact that Judge Wermager did come down with 15 years serving 10, we can turn the next page,” said Veronica Ford.
They can turn the page, but how do they move forward without Dalton and Tayler?
“We don't know. This is all strange, new territory for us,” said Jim Ford. “And I don't know who said it in their impact statement. But you go out and try to live your life normally, and all of a sudden you get a pit in your stomach, and you realize you're having… we took a vacation to Mexico and there's moments down there. Because we took the kids down there, and their girlfriends, and you're out there having a good time and all of a sudden you just realize, hey, you're having a good time without Dalton and Tayler. You feel guilty, survivors’ guilt.”
“We can't stop living and we have a beautiful granddaughter, Dylan and Rihanna are bringing a second grandbaby and so there's definitely moments of things to look forward to but then there's always the side that they should be here. Dalton and Tayler should be here enjoying every step of the way, every moment of joy we will have for the rest of our lives and we're just kind of catapulted back in and punched in the stomach and we'll never be a full family ever again. We've got a major key player times two missing. Those holes will never be filled,” said Veronica Ford.
The birth of their grand baby was a joyous, happy moment, but the cloud of having uncle Dalton and aunt Tayler missing hung over the birth of their granddaughter.
Jim explained the moment he found out and how the cloud affected him.
“I drive truck over the road, I shut down for the night and it's two in the morning out in Michigan. I get in bed, grab my phone, and I'm going to read myself to sleep like I normally do. Then I see that Evangeli Tayler was born and just to see the name, I had to sit up in my bed and I just bawled because Dalton and Tayler weren't here to take that in, they were so looking forward to being there with Dylan and Rihanna. It was a wonderful moment in our family, but at the same time, it was bittersweet.”
Dylan tried to put into words how the families move forward.
“I think the way we move forward is in grief,” Dylan Ford said. “That is the new normal for us is living with grief. And it's going to be a day-by-day process for each of us. A mother is going to process through grief different than the father and a brother, you know. So, while we're doing it all together as a family, there's also going to be differences in how we process through grief individually as well. It's just going to be continuing to be a family and support one another, to be with one another, to love one another and just be really intentional with the time that we're given, because we don't know how much we have on this earth.”
The community of Prescott was thrust into this situation along with the families, and the support from the community made the tragedy a little easier for the families.
“We don't even know where to begin,” said Veronica Ford. “I mean, Prescott, Burnsville, Dakota County, the level of support… I keep saying I'm going to pay it forward, and that is what we're going to continue to try to do. Prescott lost two teenagers a month and a half ago in a tragic accident, two 17-year-olds, and I know what those parents are going through and I went to both houses. We gave them food which was what happened with us those first couple of weeks, I don't… I don't know what we would have done without it. Prescott is a golden community to live in, and they continue to support us. Hands down. How do you pay people back? You just pay it forward and try to be the best person you can be.”
Veronica’s parting words, “Hug your children. Tell them you love them. The last thing him and I said to each other is that we loved each other. And that I am, I'm very, very thankful that that was the last three things that him and I said to each other.”