GOLDEN – “It’s all about choices,” said Alison Bowen shortly before being sentenced Friday to 45 days in jail and two years of probation for her role in a March 13 crash that killed another girl and injured a young man.
Bowen, 16, was in the back seat of her parents’ Ford Explorer when the driver, Nanette Lafleur, 17, veered across the median on West Alameda Parkway and hit a Honda Accord head-on.
Killed was Samara Stricklen, a 17-year-old Bear Creek High School student who was headed to the movies with Seth Mutschler, who now is 21. Mutschler survived severe injuries.
Immediately after the impact, according to a grand jury indictment issued in June, Lafleur asked Bowen to get into the driver’s seat and Lafleur got out.
Bowen was charged with attempting to influence a public servant and for driving under the influence.
In an emotion-charged, packed courtroom, Bowen was allowed to read her letter to Stricklen’s and Mutschler’s families.
“My inconsiderate choices and irresponsibility” resulted in another life being taken, Bowen read, a fact that “will haunt me forever.”
Seth Mutschler left the courtroom during the reading, saying later that Bowen did it “to make herself feel better.”
Stricklen’s mother, Michelle Long, said she still grieves “the center of my life,” a daughter who “was full of fire and happiness.”
Long, who is hearing impaired, told through a sign language interpreter how Samara said “I love you” twice before leaving that night, how she touched her daughter’s still-warm body at the hospital while confirming it was her, and how without her, the house is so quiet.
Jefferson County Judge Brian Boatright imposed an extensive sentence that District Attorney Scott Storey said “took into consideration every condition” for consequences and rehabilitation.
Calling the sentence the most difficult he’s imposed in eight years, Boatright said Bowen “is a young person who has made terrible decisions but is not the legal cause of a death.”
Bowen must undergo substance abuse education and treatment; serve 100 hours of community service for Mothers Against Drunk Driving; observe a 5 p.m. curfew except to go to school, work and court-related programs; earn a high school diploma; undergo a genetic marker test for substance abuse; pay the $300 DUI fine; not drive without a valid license and then no one under 21 may ride with her; submit to random urine and blood analyses; and serve 50 hours of community service in a hearing-impaired program.
Bowen was led away in handcuffs to serve three days of jail time. The rest of her sentence will be served during spring break and during the summer months.
Any sentence “was never going to be good enough,” said Stricklen’s friend, Ashley Godkin, who had asked the court for the maximum penalty.
Mutschler called Boatright’s sentence “pretty fair. I didn’t expect a lot of the things he said.”
“I try to remain angry and focused and motivated,” said Mutschler. “I still haven’t cried yet because if I do, I wouldn’t be able to stop.”
Lafleur, who obtained a driver’s license just a month before, has been charged as an adult with vehicular homicide and eight other counts.
She will be arraigned Feb. 25.
Ann Schrader: 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
