The man who killed a Little Rock woman in a car crash while trying to elude police pursuit accepted a 30-year sentence for murder on Tuesday just as his trial was about to get underway.
The woman's teenage daughter was also seriously injured in the September 2015 crash in the 10000 block of Chicot Road, and Jordan Matthew Van Den Berghe was driving a Nissan Maxima he'd stolen the day before.
The 30-year sentence requires that the 25-year-old Roland man serve at least 21 years before he can qualify for parole.
He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the killing of Trendia Penn-Horton, a 39-year-old mother of two; first-degree battery for the injuries he inflicted on Nahtali Dashundra Horton, now 20; felony theft; and fleeing. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges for the heroin that police found on him after the crash.
His plea comes less than a week after Circuit Judge Leon Johnson ruled that prosecutors Tonia Acker and Ashley Bowen would be allowed to play for jurors a recorded interview Van Den Berghe gave police about five hours after the crash.
On that recording, Van Den Berghe told detectives he didn't want to stop for the police officer trying to pull him over because his driver's license was suspended.
He said his girlfriend encouraged him to speed away rather than pull over. He estimated that he was driving at least 70 mph and told detectives he might have reached 90 mph.
He initially denied knowing the Maxima was stolen, claiming it was a loan from a friend. But when pressed by detectives, he admitted to stealing the car the day before the fatal crash.
Van Den Berghe, who suffered a concussion in the crash, said he never saw the mother and daughter jogging on the sidewalk. He said he remembered crashing into something, then losing control and the car rolling over. He told police he next remembered unbuckling his girlfriend's seat belt.
Police say Van Den Berghe tried to run from the crashed Maxima but was quickly chased down by officers. Van Den Berghe told detectives he had no recollection of that, and in testimony at last week's hearing, told the judge he barely recalled anything that happened to him after he was taken to the hospital.
His girlfriend, 28-year-old Leia Rita Holland of Little Rock, was not hurt in the crash and was not charged. She had been listed as a prosecution witness and is listed in jail visitation records as his fiancee.
The chase covered barely a half-mile and lasted less than a half-minute, police said. Van Den Berghe crashed just after he raced out of the parking lot of the Woodhaven Missionary Baptist Church at Chicot Road and Woodhaven Drive. A police dash-cam video was an integral part of the prosecution's case.
Van Den Berghe lost control of the car when he clipped a sport utility vehicle he was trying to pass, prosecutors said. The Maxima went into a roll, striking the mother and daughter. The impact flung them into the side of a parked SUV. Penn-Horton was killed instantly.
Van Den Berghe had been on probation for about nine months at the time, and he was awaiting trial on a new charge, stemming from his arrest barely a month before.
Court records show Van Den Berghe had been arrested on Aug. 15, 2015, after Little Rock police found him parked at 3700 W. Fourth St., asleep behind the wheel of a stolen 2007 Toyota Camry. The car had been taken a couple of days earlier from the La Quinta Inn at 200 S. Shackleford Road.
In the center console of the vehicle, police found a stolen driver's license that had been taken from a July 17, 2015, car break-in in Little Rock. On the Camry's driver's seat, officers also found a tin box containing hypodermic needles and several small plastic bags with a powder residue.
Van Den Berghe was charged with felony theft by receiving for having the stolen car. On Sept. 15, 2016, the second anniversary of Penn-Horton's death, Van Den Berghe pleaded guilty in that case in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence. That term will run concurrently with his 30-year murder sentence.
Court records show he had been on probation since December 2014 after his first felony arrest on March 15, 2014, when Little Rock police caught him spray-painting a wall of Furniture Factory Outlet at 280 S. Shackleford Road.
While awaiting trial in that vandalism case, Van Den Berghe was arrested again on Aug. 13, 2014, for using a stolen credit card to rent a hotel room at the Motel 6, 10524 W. Markham Road.
Arrested with him was Tiffany Michelle Davasher, 35, of Benton, who also used a stolen card to make a purchase at the hotel. The cards had been stolen in a vehicle burglary the night before the couple was arrested. Police also reported finding methamphetamine and a syringe.
Van Den Berghe pleaded guilty to felony criminal mischief for the vandalism. Both he and Davasher pleaded guilty to felony breaking or entering and theft by receiving and misdemeanor fraudulent use of a credit card. Davasher, who took responsibility for the drugs, also pleaded to felony counts of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.
Van Den Berghe was sentenced to five years on probation in December 2014, with the requirement that he enroll in drug treatment. He was also fined $1,000, ordered to pay $4,000 in restitution for the vandalism and, with Davasher, pay $5,000 in restitution to the victim of the car burglary.
He was next arrested on June 20, 2015, his 24th birthday, on a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge for vandalism at the Extended Stay America Hotel at 10800 Kanis Road where he and Holland, his girlfriend, were staying after someone else had paid for their room.
The hotel manager provided police a surveillance video that showed Van Den Berghe using a paint marker to write "ghost" on a washing machine in the laundry. The manager said the "ghost" graffiti mark had shown up on five different locations at the hotel after the couple checked in three days earlier.
Simultaneously with the vandalism arrest, he was also arrested on a revocation petition that had been issued two days earlier because he had only paid $50 toward his restitution and hadn't been reporting to his probation officer as he was required to.
Four days later, on June 24, 2015, Van Den Berghe admitted to violating probation and was returned to probation with some additional conditions. He also pleaded guilty that same day to the misdemeanor criminal mischief charge and was sentenced to a year in jail, although he would not begin that sentence until last September.
Metro on 03/01/2017