E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Teens, Alcohol, Mystery Car All Part of Crash Investigation
By Phil Parker And Kiera Hay
Journal Staff Writer
One minute they were a bunch of carefree teenagers headed to somebody's house to "hang out."
They next minute four of them were dead, one critically injured and others on their cell phones describing for dispatchers the horrific crash scene east of Santa Fe.
"Tell someone to get out here. It's really bad. I mean, half the (expletive) car is gone," pleads Mikhail McReynolds, the first caller to reach dispatchers. "I think people might be dead."
Kate Klein, Alyssa Trouw, Julian Martinez and Rose Simmons were killed shortly after midnight Sunday when the Subaru in which they were riding swerved to avoid the Jeep that 27-year-old Scott Owens was driving in the wrong lane on Old Las Vegas Highway, according to investigators.
Owens then swerved into the Subaru and broadsided it, according to the sheriff's office.
Avree Koffman, the driver of the Subaru, was the only survivor in that car and remains in University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The Subaru was one of a group of cars headed to a party in Eldorado southeast of Santa Fe.
Officers said they detected an odor of alcohol on Owens and said he had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. He declined a breath test and a blood sample was taken. Results were not yet available.
His mother suggested Monday that further details may exonerate her son.
"I believe that things will come out in such a way people will see he was not a drunken, despicable man on the wrong side of the road who killed teenagers," said the woman, who told a reporter to identify her as Barbara Owens although she goes by another last name.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano said he's spoken personally with Scott Owens' mother.
"I've assured her we'll investigate thoroughly what she's brought to our attention," Solano said. "There's an allegation that another car sideswiped the Jeep (that Owens was driving) and caused it to go into the other lane. We're looking at that and taking it seriously."
Teen caravan
One of the witnesses who was driving behind the Koffman's car told the Journal he saw Owens sitting in his Jeep after the wreck.
"He was out of it," Forrest Ellers, 17, said. "He said, 'I don't know what happened. First thing I know I was crashed into them.' "
Ellers, a Monte del Sol Charter School student, said he was good friends with Martinez, one of the teens killed. Ellers was with the group at Sonic, playing hacky sack, before they loaded up "three or four" cars and headed to a house in Eldorado "just to hang out," he said.
Ellers was in the back seat of the last car in the line. He described what he saw about 10 minutes past midnight early Sunday.
"We were just driving on the road and I saw Avree swerve and saw the Jeep hit them and T-bone them," he said. "I got out and it was all smashed, and I ran around and saw my friends in the car and they were all dead."
"It was like a crater in her car," he said. "It was just smashed in. His car was lodged in it and the alarm was going off and this honking wouldn't stop. ... Their car was destroyed completely."
Ellers continued: "My friend was freaking out and saying they were all dead. I didn't know what happened, so I called 911. "
Another witness, Taylor Johnson, said that in the seconds after the crash, she remembered flashing lights and a car horn blaring incessantly.
"It was just really intense," she said.
911 calls
The Santa Fe Regional Emergency Communications Center received three 911 calls in the minutes following the crash: two from friends following behind Koffman's car, one from someone passing by.
McReynolds, at this point, is patched through to another dispatcher. Over the next several minutes, he describes a scene of smashed cars with "blood everywhere." In the background, others can be heard crying and shouting.
"Uh, we were following someone, a car ahead of us, and they wrecked into this Jeep and our friend is completely, like half the car is (expletive) gone," McReynolds tells the second dispatcher.
She asks him whether the car's occupants are awake and McReynolds says, "No, they're all knocked out or dead."
He then pauses to check on the car's occupants and observes: "None of them have a pulse."
Later, McReynolds tells the dispatcher he's going to check on the occupants of the Jeep.
McReynolds can then be heard saying, "Hello, are you OK?"
A weaker voice responds, "I don't know."
McReynolds, back on the phone, tells the dispatcher Owens is the only person in the Jeep.
"He's struggling to put his pants on. I don't know what (pause) ... I mean, he sounds pretty drunk and or out of it. I have no idea," McReynolds says.
As emergency vehicles pull up, someone can be heard sobbing, and there's a cry of, "Oh, my God. Oh, my God."
A second call from Ellers yields similar information.
After Ellers tells a dispatcher the cars are near the Bobcat Bite restaurant, his voice breaks and he pleads, "Can you come quick. Please. Oh, oh, my God."
Smiling suspect
Owens' mother said she doesn't know why her son is smiling in the mug shot when he was booked into jail after the horrific crash.
She said she'd seen her son and spoken with him since the crash.
"I've cried so much my eyes hurt," she said. "I'm devastated for the loss of the lives and by all of it. So is he. He's really, really broken up. They're keeping a close eye on him (in jail), trying to help him deal with this terrible tragedy."
As for that smile: "He had a concussion, was disoriented, was confused," Barbara said. "I don't believe he knew at the time exactly what had happened. I don't think he processed it ... I hate to hear he had a smile because I know how people will take it."
Sheriff's office officials said Owens suffered a bruised chest consistent with hitting the steering wheel and also a minor leg injury. He was not diagnosed with a concussion.
Barbara Owens said her son was at a cookout with friends in the hours before the crash. She spoke with someone who was there, she said, who told her Owens was not "dead drunk" before he left.
Driving record
Owens has been arrested previously for DWI, in 2001 when he was caught racing another car on Cerrillos Road. The officer who pulled them over cited both cars for racing and arrested Owens after noting the smell of alcohol, watery eyes and slurred speech.
Owens' blood alcohol content was .15, almost twice the legal limit. Blood was drawn from Owens after this weekend's crash, but it could be more than two weeks before the results are know.
Barbara insisted on Monday her son is not an alcoholic.
"A lot of young people, they drink and get away with it," she said. "I know he's not a heavy drinker. It seems to me that my son, when he does something, there he is (getting caught). Other people do the same thing and never get caught."
"I would like most people to stand up and say they have never driven a car after having a few too many drinks."
Owens has been cited for two other violations with a connection to alcohol — an open container violation in March 2005 on U.S. 550 between Bernalillo and Bloomfield for which he paid a $70 fine, and in April 1999, he was cited for littering for throwing a beer can out of the passenger side window of a vehicle, apparently in El Dorado, and paid a fine of $139.
Taxation and Revenue Secretary Rick Homans said other citations include:
n A speeding ticket in 1999 for going 70 miles an hour in a 55 mph zone on N.M. 14 in Bernalillo County. He paid a $73 fine.
n A citation for not having vehicle insurance in 2005 after he was pulled over in Santa Fe. He paid a $41 fine.
n A 2006 speeding ticket issued by the State Police on U.S. 84.
n A citation in Santa Fe County in April of this year for not wearing a seat belt.
You also can send comments via our comment form
|
|
