Judge denies home detention in fatal crash

After an emotional hearing, a county judge this week denied a request for home detention from a Baltimore man convicted in a 2007 traffic crash that killed two of his friends.

Instead, Circuit Court Judge William C. Mulford II ordered Nicholas Vakoutis III, 20, to finish an 18-month sentence imposed in the death of Justin Wesley Grahe, 16, of Pasadena and Ronald Jake Houck, 19, of Baltimore.

In a hearing Tuesday attended by both the Vakoutis' family and those of his friends, Vakoutis asked to be allowed to finish the rest of his sentence at home.

"No matter how many times I say I'm sorry, it's not going to bring them back," he said, his voice breaking. "I think about them every day. They were my family."

Vakoutis was driving a Toyota Yaris north on Marley Neck Road in Glen Burnie about 8:30 p.m. on July 27, 2007, when he lost control. He was driving 85 mph when he spun off the road, up an embankment and into an oak tree.

Grahe died at the scene and Houck died a few days later at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Both Vakoutis and Justin Grahe's 17-year-old brother, Joshua, were seriously injured.

Vakoutis pleaded guilty Jan. 12 to two counts of auto manslaughter as part of a plea agreement that capped the possible sentence at 18 months in the Ordnance Road Corrections Center in Glen Burnie.

His attorney, John Hammond, asked Mulford to allow Vakoutis to finish his sentence on home detention. He said Vakoutis has not gotten into any trouble at the detention center and has been allowed work release at the county Food Bank.

"Primarily the cause of the accident was the speed of a younger driver," Hammond said.

But family members opposed the change.

"Through a bad judgment, two lives were taken and it's torn our family apart," said John Grahe, Justin Wesley Grahe's uncle.

He said it was hard to let the deaths of the teens go, but it was especially difficult that Vakoutis was asking to be released early.

Ralph Houck, Ronald Jake Houck's father, said the entire 18-month sentence was too short.

"Home detention would be a cake walk," he said.

Nicholas Vakoutis Jr., Vakoutis' father, said in court that the teens were "carrying on in the car," and suggested one of the other teens pulled on the wheel, causing the crash.

The remark caused an outburst from one of the victims' family members.

The judge then stopped the hearing for five minutes and gave a strict warning.

The elder Vakoutis, however, again made loud remarks and had to be escorted by deputies from the courthouse.

Carol Vakoutis, however, told the judge her son has done well in jail and that he's a "good kid."

He knows his friends are not coming back, and that's "something he's going to have to live with for the rest of his life," she said.

Mulford said he was pleased Vakoutis was doing well in jail, and he hoped that continued. But he thought the original sentence of 18 months was fair.

As Vakoutis left the courtroom after the hearing, John Grahe wished him good luck. He said he does not hold any hatred for the man.

"No one wins in this kind of thing," he said.