According to his family, Ryan Torrens was a man who packed a lifetime’s worth of accomplishments and compassion into just 31 years.
After Torrens spent six years as a Corpsman in the U.S. Navy, worked in San Diego with the Wounded Warrior Project and worked at a hospital to help those with mental illness, he decided to enroll into a social work master’s program at the University of West Florida to be closer to his family.
However, just seven weeks after returning home to Pensacola, Torrens’ life was abruptly ended on Sept. 27, 2019, in a hit-and-run. Kyle Harger struck Torrens with his vehicle as Torrens was walking his bike down Cervantes Street.
“We were so excited to have him home,” Torrens’ sister Caroline told the News Journal. “He lived a full life. He wanted to help people.”
Torrens’ mother, Susan, added that her son “had such an angel heart for other people,” and that “compassion was one of his major things.”
The mother and daughter were forced to relive their loss Wednesday as Harger attempted to have a judge overturn the 20-year prison sentence he received in 2021 for killing Torrens.
Harger was charged with vehicular homicide and failing to remain at a crash involving a death, but he pleaded no contest to the latter charge in exchange for the state dropping the vehicular homicide charge. He now alleges his attorney Jason Cromey was ineffective for incorrectly informing him he could face up to 60 years in prison.
Under Florida’s double jeopardy rule—which prohibits a defendant from receiving multiple punishments for charges that share identical elements—Harger could not be sentenced for both counts he was initially charged with. Harger’s new attorney Chris Jenkins argued during the June 17 hearing that Cromey failed to inform his client of the double jeopardy rule and failed to inform him of the maximum 30-year sentence he would have faced had he gone to trial in 2021.
“It’s the defense’s position that Mr. Harger was erroneously advised, and we’d argue that he was advised, there was a 60-year maximum,” Jenkins told Judge Amy Brodersen during the hearing. “Had Mr. Harger not been erroneously advised of a 60-year maximum, it’s our contention that this case would have been different. Mr. Harger would have elected to go to trial.”
Jenkins also called Harger to the stand during the hearing. Harger testified that he believed he faced 60 years in prison, which led him to plead no contest to one charge rather than take the case to a jury trial.
The state, however, contends that Harger knew he only faced 30 years if convicted at trial and instead chose the plea deal since his minimum mandatory sentence was roughly two years. Cromey took the stand during the hearing, and Assistant State Attorney Matt Casey noted that his testimony showed he did, in fact, inform Harger he would only face 30 years in prison.
“I would submit to the court that Mr. Cromey’s testimony was very credible today,” Casey argued. “He has no reason to come in here and, as an officer of the court, lie under oath and tell the court something that didn’t happen.”
After hearing from both attorneys, Brodersen informed them she will take time to carefully reflect on the case as a whole, as well as Harger’s motion to overturn his plea deal, before making a decision.
The Torrens family, though, has confidence in the case’s outcome regardless of whether Brodersen decides to uphold or reverse Harger’s plea deal.
“If there was a re-trial, I think we would be confident in that as well, but we’re confident that the decision will stand,” Caroline Torrens said after the hearing. “The judge at the time, Judge (Linda) Nobles, she wanted to make an example out of him because this has been such a big problem in Pensacola.
“The least you could do is live out your sentence,” Caroline added, speaking of Harger. “You killed my brother, you ruined our family, that’s the least you could do, and you’re here trying to weasel your way out of it.”
Benjamin Johnson is the crime and military reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He covers local law enforcement and courts within Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: He took a plea deal in a fatal hit-and-run. Now he wants to take it back
Reporting by Benjamin Johnson, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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By Benjamin Johnson, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
