Restitution, jail ordered in death of motorcyclist

A woman whose van struck and killed a Navy reservist, who'd survived a tour in Iraq and was scheduled to be married, was sentenced Monday to 30 days in jail and ordered to pay costs connected with his funeral and planned wedding.

Sylvia Beth Baron, 49, of Paradise, was also placed on three years' probation and will serve 240 hours on a Yuba County work project for her misdemeanor manslaughter conviction in the April 27 death of Nevada County resident Daniel Arthur Durgin, 33, at Fourth and E streets in Marysville.

His sister will be paid $1,554 for the two weeks she took off from work while planning Durgin's funeral. Baron will also be required to reimburse $911 for the wedding dress of his fiancée, Sierra Knapp.

Durgin's family will be paid a total of $14,289 for the funeral and the planned May 24 wedding.

Baron can serve the sentence on weekends, Judge Julia Scrogin ruled.

Knapp told the court Monday that Durgin was her fiancé, best friend and the love of her life.

"I have none of these," she said, "now that's he gone."

"Instead of reading my wedding vows," Knapp said, "I got to read a eulogy."

She said she didn't wish the maximum, one-year jail sentence for Baron but wanted her to spend weekends in jail and complete the 30 days "so she would also get a taste of what it's like to be separated from your loved ones."

Elsie Durgin said Daniel "was the son most mothers wish they had."

She said the family was very happy when he returned safely in 2006 from Iraq, where he served as corpsman with a Marine Corps unit.

His death in Marysville before his wedding, Elsie Durgin said, meant that "Daniel's best men became his pallbearers."

Baron, a surgeon who stopped practicing medicine and became a stay-at-home mother, was driving April 27 with her four children and looked away from the roadway for an unknown reason, according to the probation report.

Baron next saw Durgin's motorcycle in front of her and tried to brake, but the van climbed over the motorcycle, pinning him under the van, the probation report said.

She was driving to meet her husband in Placerville where he was playing music at a Christian camp, the report said.

Contact Appeal reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com