Painful odyssey: Family still struggles 28 months after Magna tragedy

Pugmire knew Jacques was drunk. Tests later showed Jacques had an illegal blood-alcohol level of .11, along with prescription drugs and cocaine metabolite in his system. Jacques wanted a cigarette, and Pugmire walked the man toward his car to get one. That's when Pugmire noticed Buddha on the ground, lying near the open car door.

Jacques was so out of it, Pugmire said, "he was stumbling over the child on the ground. He was almost stepping on him."

Desi woke up on the ground surrounded by police cars' flashing lights. His dad was stumbling around, frantic. "Where are my kids. Where are my kids?" Jacques was there, too, trying to walk toward him and yelling, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Pugmire said Jacques kept trying to talk to the children.

"I tried to keep him away from them as best I could," Pugmire told the court. "I figured he'd done enough."

 · · · · ·  "Some days it's almost like we are worse, like we are going downhill. Some time will go by and then we are back in wheelchairs and it's almost like it was just yesterday."

— Desi Smith, 13, in an interview this month.

 · · · · ·  Autumn is now a fifth-grader at Arcadia Elementary. She loves art, science, reading and sewing. She does not like P.E. She's always loved to sing and dance. She's always dreamed of being a cheerleader, but now rude scars on her legs that run from knee to hip make her too embarrassed to try out.

She's had three surgeries. Because of nearly a year in a wheelchair, she has kidney and pancreatic problems, too. She still has a plate in her left femur. Eventually, it will require another surgery to remove it.

Little Dominic still considers Buddha his best friend.

Recently, Liza Smith found the boy huddled over a cell phone in a quiet corner.

"What are you doing, Dom?" Liza Smith asked.

"Buddha called me from up in the sky," the little boy replied.

Desi is a student at Bennion Junior High. He is an artist who specializes in sketches of Japanese-style cartoon charac- ters. He loves basketball and plays at church, but he can't play long before his leg and knee cramp up. He speaks up for his sister when she can't speak for herself.

Every day after school he walks more than a mile from Bennion Junior High at 6200 South and 2700 West to Arcadia Elementary at 4700 South and 3600 West, where he picks Autumn up and walks her home. She remains afraid of walking outdoors, even on the sidewalk.