She never heard him apologize or accept the blame, but on Tuesday, 64- year-old Marilyn Wagner asked a Denver District Court judge to give a second chance to the man who killed her elderly parents in a high-speed crash.
That’s why Frederick Culp is not in jail.
“I want you to know, plain and simple, that there is one thing and one thing only that is keeping you out of jail today,” Judge Christina Habas said at Culp’s sentencing. “And that’s the victims’ family.”
Habas sentenced Culp to 250 hours of community service and a suspended 30- month jail sentence, contingent upon the successful completion of a four-year probation.
Culp, a 31-year-old University of Colorado at Denver business major, may not drive during that period and must remain employed or in school full time.
He had pleaded guilty to a charge of criminally negligent homicide after he sped through a Denver intersection and crashed into a car, killing the couple.
Clinton and Sophie Andersen, 85 and 83, had retired shortly before the October 2004 crash. They had owned one of Denver’s first buffets, Andy’s Smorgasbord.
Culp’s brother, Eddie Culp, called his sibling an honorable man ready to take responsibility for his mistakes. He paused and wept as he spoke.
Frederick Culp, manacled and clad in a dark-blue jumpsuit, stood, began crying and shouting, “Get my brother,” to stop Eddie’s teary speech.
When it was his time to address the court, Culp said there had been two people at fault for the fatal crash, sharing blame with the other driver.
Culp is serving a 40-day jail term for contempt of court after several eruptions during the civil case, where the Andersens’ family was awarded nearly $3.2 million.
Ferin Mills, 39, the victims’ granddaughter, said that with the suspended sentence, freedom is now Culp’s to lose.
“We felt that if he went into prison right off the bat, he would have us to blame,” she said.
Staff writer Brandon Lowrey can be reached at 303-820-1201 or blowrey@denverpost.com.
