Jury recommends decades in prison for man convicted of running over family in downtown Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A jury recommended a 75-year prison sentence Tuesday for the man convicted of murder two years after running over a Kansas family in downtown Louisville.

Michael Hurley was found guilty by a jury Monday of murder, assault and driving under the influence. In July 2022, Hurley ran over the Jones family at 2nd and Market streets, after which a blood test found fentanyl in his system. Trey Jones, 42, died. His wife, Amy, and daughter, Ava, suffered life-changing injuries.

"I am just so happy to get this chapter over with," Amy Jones said Tuesday. "... We can move on to just working on Ava's and my continued recovery."

Tuesday's sentence is simply a recommendation by the jury. Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Annie O'Connell will take it into advisement and make a final ruling at a sentencing hearing Dec. 13.

Monday's verdict came on day six of the trial in Louisville. The prosecution painted the case as a man who was "wasted and out of his mind" on fentanyl driving out of control when he hit Trey, Amy and Ava Jones. The defense said that while "there is no denying" what happened was a "tragedy," it was an accident as Hurley was tired from working all day and "not as intoxicated" as prosecutors say.

Each side presented about 30 minutes of closing arguments Monday after four days of testimony.

"His indifference after the crash confirms his indifference — his extreme indifference — that led to the crash," prosecutor Andrew Daley said. "... He chose to drive wasted. He chose to take fentanyl. He chose to speed. He chose to run the red lights."

Hurley did not testify during the trial, though his mother took the stand to speak about his recent dental procedures and the hydrocodone he was prescribed. He told officers on scene he'd taken hydrocodone, but the blood test came back positive for fentanyl.

Jordan Potts, Hurley's attorney, still maintained Monday that the murder charge wasn't applicable.

"This is not murder," he said. "This is not a situation where somebody got in his car and said 'You know what I am going to do today? I am just going to drive into a sidewalk and hit a family.' There is a difference. That is why there are different types of charges."

"Everything we heard today is that he, obviously, did not intend for this to happen. He didn't leave that day wanting this to happen."

On Tuesday, the jury heard the last of a long list of victim impact statements, one from Hurley's parents, who said their son served four years in the Marines and came back different.

"He had a lot of anxiety (and) emotional distress," said Michael Anderson Hurley, Hurley's father. "He probably saw some things, I was informed, that was kind of tragic, you might say."

'I am a lot more sad'

On Thursday, tears streamed down 19-year-old Ava Jones' face as she told a jury she can no longer shoot a basketball or even walk very far after the crash.

Trey Jones died shortly after being hit of a catastrophic brain injury. His wife, Amy, and daughter, Ava, were seriously hurt and were in town for weeks in rehab in Louisville. Another child was slightly injured. The family, from Kansas, was in Louisville for a basketball tournament Ava was playing in.

The Jones family was in town for the national "Run 4 Roses' AAU basketball tournament at the Kentucky Exposition Center, exploring a new city days after Jones fulfilled a lifelong dream. She was offered scholarships in three sports "and was very good at them" but — two days before the crash — committed to play basketball at the University of Iowa. Now, she said "it takes me about 20 second to write my name." Once a valedictorian, her memory is so bad that she does not recollect what was said in her classes at Iowa minutes after they have ended.

This has affected her relationship with other students as well.

"My recollection of what they said affects my ability to have friends," Jones testified, also noting she is in treatment for depression. She does not remember the wreck or even much of her stay in the hospital. It took her two years to relearn how to speak properly. She has double vision and multiple surgeries have left her in constant pain.

"I have a lot less friends," said Jones, who is a sophomore. "I am a lot more sad."

Her potential to hold down a job is "not good," she said. "You have to be able to remember what you are doing, and I can't remember."

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Scott Drabestadt said she can't even shoot a basketball with her injuries now, including a traumatic brain injury, and her life "will never be the same."

"She is a lonely college student trying to get through life now because of his decisions," he said.

'Wasted out of his mind'

Drabestadt told jurors earlier this week that Hurley had "nothing but selfishness and wanton disregard for the safety of others" when he drove his vehicle with blood levels showing he had five times above what is considered a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.

Hurley didn't stop for 100 feet after he hit the Jones family with his car at 2nd and Market streets on July 5, 2022.

Michael Hurley at scene of downtown Louisville accident — Michael Hurley, 33, sits handcuffed on the back of his car with the windshield shattered on Tuesday, July 5, shortly after police say he hit a family on a downtown Louisville sidewalk. (WDRB photo)

"He didn't even begin to brake until well after he plowed into the Jones family," Drabestadt said in his opening statements, shortly after a jury was chosen. "That's how wasted and out of his mind he was."

But Potts has said that while "there is no denying" what happened was a "tragedy," it was an accident as Hurley was tired from working all day and "not as intoxicated" as prosecutors say.

Potts said there is clearly a problem with the blood results as there is no way Hurley could have that much fentanyl in his system and still talk to police officers at the scene and do as well as he did in the field sobriety test.

"The blood (test) doesn't make sense," Potts told jurors.

A police officer testified that Hurley failed the field sobriety test. After he was arrested, Hurley told police he would be fired from his job if he missed work the next day, according to body camera footage.

Potts said Hurley had taken hydrocodone for pain from a dental procedure but the wreck was due to his client getting up at 3:30 a.m. for work that day.

"This was someone who was tired," Potts told jurors. "At no point did Mr. Hurley ever wish for anything like this to happen."

Hurley said he was driving to inquire about a job when he realized he was too late and tried to quickly make a turn "but went straight, instead," veering off the road and running over the family, according to police body camera footage played in court.

While prosecutors said Hurley nodded off at the scene of the wreck, Hurley claimed he was praying.

Some people in the courtroom gasped Tuesday when a surveillance video of the wreck was played for the jury. Police body camera footage showed the aftermath of the wreck, with the family bloodied and spread out while people tried to help them.

Hurley was charged with murder, multiple counts of assault and driving under the influence, facing up to 70 years in prison.

'I can't throw a football with him'

Like her daughter Thursday, Amy Jones said Friday she doesn't remember the wreck. But the courtroom were shown last picture she took minutes before that crash, the family happy and healthy together.

She told the jury she had 22 broken bones and 18 surgeries. Prosecutors asked Amy Jones to stand up and show the jury the deformities to her legs and arms from that crash. Because of those deformities and injuries, she can no longer play ball with her young, active son.

"No, not if it requires anything you have to move for. I can't throw a football with him ..." she said, her voice trailing off through tears.

Now, Amy Jones said she lives with several scars, pain in her shoulder and a permanent metal rod in her leg. She also was in a coma for two weeks before waking up to a daughter who she said will never be the same because of her traumatic brain injury.

"I would equate Amy's injury to something Evel Knievel might have had back in the day," Dr. Darryl Kaelin, medical director of the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute, said in 2022. "The amount of trauma that this family — and, in particular, Ava and Amy — have experienced is horrific."

Kaelin said Amy Jones had multiple fractures to her spine, shoulder, shoulder blade, rib cage, pelvis, right thigh and both shins. Ava Jones had several fractures as well and a head injury "a little more significant than her mom's," Kaelin said.