Victim in crash caused by multiple DUI offender talks about suspect’s apparent suicide

After losing her unborn son to a collision with a drunk driver last July, a Longmont woman is disappointed that the suspected driver has chosen suicide over jail time.

Gary Michael Sheats, who was expected to be sentenced next month for his fifth D.U.I., was found dead in a Denver motel room on Tuesday night in what officials have labeled an apparent suicide.

“Being the victim, him taking the coward way out, was very frustrating to me but now I’m at the point, now I just really feel bad for his family,” said Heather Surovik in an exclusive interview with FOX31 Denver News on Wednesday.

Surovik, her mother and son were all injured in the crash. But Heather also lost an unborn son who was expected to be delivered within two weeks of the crash.

That child, Brady Paul, has now been the focus of a campaign to create a law in Colorado that would re-define the death of an unborn child as the same classification as the death of a person.

“We get no justice because he took his own life…we don’t even get that day in court where we get to hear him plead guilty,” said Surovik’s mother Terry Koester.

Sheats was expected to be sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for the collision in which investigators say the 52-year-old fled the scene but was followed by eyewitnesses.

Sheats parents, who owned the vehicle involved in the crash, had no comment for FOX31 Denver on Wednesday.

The Denver Medical Examiner’s Office is still performing an autopsy and have not released details on Sheats’ death.

“Having him sentenced was going to be my closure, that it was going to be done and over with and I wouldn’t have to worry about anything else,” added a teary-eyed Surovik.

The 28-year-old said she’s expecting to continue to fight for the rights of unborn children and wants stricter laws for habitual DUI offenders.