Jose Marmolejo listens to his attorney address the court during sentencing at the Regional Justice Center Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Marmolejo was sentenced for the death of eighth-grader Rex Patchett in front of Mannion Middle School on March 7, 2022.
Published Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023 | 1:40 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023 | 5:29 p.m.
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Jose Marmolejo will be going to prison, but his sentence may fall short of what the family whose hearts he shattered 10 months ago was seeking.
Marmolejo, who was driving his sports car at a high speed through a Henderson neighborhood in March 2022 when he struck and killed 13-year-old Rex Patchett, was sentenced Wednesday to two to six years in prison.
“The facts and circumstances of this case are extremely egregious,” said Jason Patchett, Rex’s father, testifying at the sentencing hearing in Clark County District Court. “Accordingly, the sentence must also be as extreme as a law provides. … The defendant must be held accountable for killing my son. It’s time to send a strong and effective message to those who decide to wreak mayhem on our roadways and drive criminally reckless.”
Behind Jason Patchett, supporters and family members had flooded the courtroom at the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas wearing bright red, “Do it 4 Rex” shirts.
The hearing was the culmination of a monthslong letter-writing campaign to presiding Judge Carli Kierny advocating that Marmolejo, 22, receive the highest sentence possible — six years without probation — and raising awareness for safer streets overall.
Marmolejo was speeding along Paradise Hills Drive just under 100 miles per hour — more than 55 over the posted speed limit — the evening of March 7, 2022, when he lost control of his Ford Mustang and the car hit a curb before ramming onto the sidewalk, striking Rex Patchett.
Rex Patchett, a Henderson eighth-grader, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Marmolejo pleaded guilty in October to reckless driving resulting in death and child abuse, neglect or endangerment resulting in substantial bodily harm.
During the hearing Wednesday, multiple members of Rex Patchett’s family testified on the impact of his death, explaining why they thought Marmolejo should receive the utmost punishment for his actions.
Samantha Patchett said her son’s death had “shattered” her.
“It is a pain of having to live in a world that no longer makes sense. It is a pain that breaks you and changes you,” she said. “This man has taken my son.”
The speakers, including the victim’s father, mother, brother and grandfathers on both sides, recounted the night of Rex Patchett’s death — as well as the events leading up to the collision that killed him.
Bystanders had seen Marmolejo, with three passengers in his vehicle, speeding around a nearby roundabout before moving on to Paradise Hills, Jason Patchett said. The road is known for having a substantial hump outside Mannion Middle School — where the collision occurred — and people often drive over it hoping for a thrill, he said.
When Marmolejo’s Mustang went over the hump and he lost control, the car struck Rex Patchett with such force that the middle-schooler was thrown into the air. Family members said the backpack Rex had been wearing at the time was found at the crime scene, suspended from a tree.
“My son paid the ultimate price for a grown man to joy ride at 97 miles an hour. … I cannot wrap my mind around the injustice of it all,” Samantha Patchett said.
Marmolejo and his friends attempted to flee the scene but were stopped, Jason Patchett said. Later, he found out that Marmolejo wasn’t arrested for another three days, at which point he almost immediately posted bail.
Meanwhile, Rex Patchett had suffered such gruesome injuries that his family was advised not to view the teen’s body.
“My worst fears as a parent had been realized,” said Jason Patchett, recollecting when he knew his son had died. “That was the moment everything changed in my life. My precious son, Rex, was dead. My child. My baby boy. Only 13 years old — gone.”
As the family remembered who Rex Patchett was — a 6-foot, playful and competitive sports enthusiast with a happy and loving disposition, who had persevered despite a lifetime of medical issues and surgeries — the dozens of people packed into the courtroom could be heard crying or tearfully laughing in agreement.
His family and friends have been sentenced to their own kind of prison, Rex’s parents said — life without him, and the haunting memory of his death and the details surrounding it.
“We will never see him have a girlfriend, go to prom — graduate from high school,” his grandfather, Michael Patchett, said. “He will never go to college, get a job, get married or have children. This will not change.”
The loss is “excruciating, overwhelming and unfathomable,” Jason Patchett said, adding that the death of his son has caused him anger, heartache, uncertainty, hopelessness and more to last a lifetime.
The grief that the Patchett family feels is devastating, his grandfather, Rodney Burr, echoed.
“It just doesn’t go away,” he said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him.”
Ahead of his sentencing during Wednesday’s hearing, Marmolejo addressed the Patchett family. He is “deeply, truly and sincerely” sorry, Marmolejo said, and wants to rectify his actions and the grief he caused.
“I’d like to make a promise to the community and to the Patchett family that this will never happen again,” he said. “I’d like to give my deepest sorrows to the Patchett family.”
After Marmolejo was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom by officers, Patchett family members and supporters left without commenting about the sentence.
