GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — The family of a Grand Rapids woman who was killed in a crash last June can breathe a bit easier after a second man was sentenced in connection to her death.
In a Grand Haven courtroom Monday, Denis Perez was sentenced to eight to 15 years in prison for his part in a road rage crash that killed 27-year-old Sha-Tera Coleman.
“I had to celebrate our (first wedding) anniversary by moving out of the house that we lived in together,” her husband Phillip Andrew Todd said. “I feel relieved that this piece is over. I’ll never move on, but we’ll have to continue to move forward for her.”
Deputies: 2 charged with murder in ‘road rage’ crash
The deadly crash happened June 25, 2024, on Lake Michigan Drive in Tallmadge Township as authorities said Perez and Ethan Oosterhouse engaged in “road rage style driving.” Court documents said both were driving upwards of 80 mph, brake-checking one another and weaving in and out of lanes. They ultimately crashed and Perez’s Dodge Charger was shoved into oncoming traffic, causing a head-on wreck that killed Coleman.
“We all get mad behind the wheel. We just need to learn to take breaths and let it go,” Sandra Coleman, the victim’s mother, said Monday. “It’s not worth it. It really isn’t. To get that mad over somebody cutting you off.”
At sentencing, Perez apologized to the family and asked the court for grace. But Judge Karen Miedema extended Perez’s sentencing guidelines, citing the severity of the crime, his lack of remorse and jailhouse threats as the reasons for extra time…