JAIL FOR TEEN IN FATAL CRASH STREET RACER GETS YEAR TERM IN MAN'S DEATH.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A Pearblossom teen-ager whose street racing ended in the death of a 51-year-old Palmdale man was sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to talk to other teens about the dangers of street racing.

Jared Smith, 18, also was ordered to perform 500 hours of community service with the County Coroner's Office and place flowers on Robert Rex Curtis' grave on the first of each month for five years.

``You can't fathom one ounce of how we feel,'' the victim's son, Curtis, told Smith in front of the judge. ``You are not genuinely sorry because you can't fathom what we've gone through.''

The victim worked as a park ranger at the Thousand Trails private campground in Acton and took care of his 79-year-old mother, who lived with him.

He was returning home from grocery shopping and was about three blocks from home when his car was hit the afternoon of Oct. 26, family members said. He died more than a month later.

Smith and a female co-worker from a Palmdale party supply store were on a lunch break when they raced side by side up two-lane 12th Street West. Smith's 2000 Mitsubishi Mirage ran a stop sign at Avenue O and hit Curtis' 1990 Honda Civic broadside.

``It was an impetuous, spontaneous kind of thing,'' said Smith's attorney, James Koester, after the sentencing. ``It happened on a rarely used back street. It was an accident precipitated by a bad decision.''

The other driver, who was 17 at the time of the crash, is being tried in Sylmar Juvenile Court. Smith and the girl have been sued in civil court by Curtis' family, records show.

Smith was sentenced after pleading guilty to one count of vehicular manslaughter after prosecutors agreed to dismiss a misdemeanor charge of speed contest.

Smith apologized in court to the family, saying he was very sorry and that there was ``no amount of words that could help what I've done.''

Lancaster Superior Court Judge David Mintz, who also ordered Smith to write a formal letter of apology to the family and to pay $2,700 in fines, offered condolences to the victim's family.

``This is the sort of situation where words fail. There is nothing the court can say to you that will take away your grief and pain. The only thing the court can do is offer sympathy and condolences for the incredible loss that you have suffered,'' Mintz said.

Smith's attorney had requested that Smith, who was free on his written promise to appear in court, be given a month to get his personal affairs in order before starting his jail sentence, but the family opposed it.

Mintz ordered Smith to surrender May 3.

Deputy District Attorney Hayden Zacky said he hopes the case will send a message to young adults to not commit senseless acts like street racing in total disregard for human life.

Zacky said Smith had no criminal record. Had he been convicted in a trial, he probably would have been sentenced to two years in prison, of which he would only have to serve 50 percent.

``This would be a lot better in terms of facing up to what he did, getting rehabilitation, and teaching other people not to engage in this kind of conduct,'' Zacky said.

The court hearing was attended by Curtis' two sons, daughter, brother and mother.

``My son will never know what a great grandfather he was,'' said daughter Rhonda Curtis, 24, of Lancaster while clutching an 8-by-11 framed photo of her father and her 5-year-old son wearing look-alike Superman Halloween costumes. ``At the hospital, he couldn't understand why Grandpa wasn't speaking, why his head was covered with bandages or why he couldn't move. I want you to think of that every single day.''

Brother Bradley Curtis told Smith in court: ``I'm not interested in revenge. I'm interested in justice. I don't hate you, I hate what you did and what happened.''

Bradley Curtis added, ``I hope you do something with the probation. Maybe you can stop somebody (else from doing the same thing). That's the only justice I can ask for.''

Outside court after the sentencing, Smith's mother approached the Curtis family in the hallway and told the victim's mother, ``I'm very sorry for what my son did.''