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Driver killed in ice cream shop crash was part of ID theft ring

By April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 21, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Patricia Guntharp pleaded guilty in July to forgery.

Patricia Guntharp pleaded guilty in July to forgery.

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At her funeral, Patricia Guntharp was remembered as a "Care Bear" grandma, a woman who cooked fresh peanut brittle and had a gift for making and keeping friends.

But Guntharp - one of three people killed in a collision outside of an Aurora ice cream shop in September - had a troubled past.

Police reports reveal that Guntharp, 49, of Centennial, was a member of a sophisticated identity-theft ring in Colorado.

The group stole the identities of nearly 500 people and raked in roughly $400,000 by passing forged and counterfeit checks, and money orders and stolen credit cards. Many of them stole to feed their methamphetamine addictions.

"The organization was one of the largest ever investigated by police for this type of activity," said Detective Bob Friel, of the Aurora Police Department.

"(Guntharp) was a lesser player. She was responsible for passing bad checks. Their motivation for producing and cashing counterfeit checks was to support their methamphetamine addiction," he said.

Indicted in May

Guntharp was among 20 people arrested and indicted by a grand jury in May on charges that included forgery, theft, drug possession and counterfeiting.

The theft ring operated from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs. The group stole driver's licenses and other identification from cars as well as checks and money orders from apartment rent deposit boxes, police said.

Guntharp pleaded guilty in July to forgery, a Class 5 felony.

She was sentenced to two years of probation and a drug treatment program. She also was required to undergo mandatory drug testing while on probation, said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.

Guntharp's case was dismissed Sept. 12 after the district attorney's office learned of her death.

She was killed while making a left turn near East Mississippi Avenue and South Havana Street when Francis Hernandez sped through a red light and broadsided her pickup. Autopsy reports showed she had enough methamphetamine in her blood to be considered intoxicated.

Lawyer points blame

Also killed was Guntharp's best friend and passenger, Debbie Serecky, 51, of Aurora; and Marten Kudlis, 3, of Aurora, who was inside the Baskin-Robbins, snared by the wreckage and dragged to his death.

Hernandez, 23, an illegal immigrant who fled the scene of the accident, faces 19 charges, including vehicular homicide and child abuse resulting in death.

The Sept. 4 crash sparked public outcry after it was learned that Hernandez was an illegal immigrant and had been arrested nearly 20 times for traffic offenses but never deported.

Kallman Elinoff, Hernandez's attorney, said Guntharp's drug use contributed to the accident, and her criminal record proves she routinely engaged in high- risk and reckless behavior.

Elinoff contends Guntharp shoulders blame for the crash because she crossed a double yellow line and made a "dangerous" left turn just 30 yards from the intersection.

"Her whole adult life was high- risk criminal behavior," he said. "When you steal people's money and identity to feed a drug habit, why is it hard to believe she engaged in the same high-risk behavior the night of the accident?"

The Denver district attorney's office was unaware of any violations of Guntharp's probation at the time of her death, Kimbrough said.

Police and prosecutors maintain Guntharp's felony conviction and drug use are immaterial to the Hernandez case.

Last week in court, they argued that Hernandez caused the fatal crash when he ripped through the red light at 78 mph, twice the posted speed limit.

Police also said there is no evidence that Guntharp was driving poorly.

Comments

  • November 21, 2008

    8:16 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Puddles writes:

    This story gets more tragic every day and the reporting on this story has left a few things out and taken a soft approach to others. There is a significant problem with illegal immigrants in our state and the country but it was rather glossed over that Hernandez came to this country when he was 5 years old. This means that it wasn't his decision to come here, someone brought him here.

    I have been to the intersection where this tragic event occurred and there can be no doubt that Guntharp should have never attempted a left turn into the fast food joint from northbound Havana. There is no way that this could be a legal left turn and if it is considered to have been legal then the law needs to be changed.

    Next is the fact that Guntharp had enough meth in her to be considered intoxicated but the police say that's ok since there is no evidence she was driving erratically. This should open up a whole new line of defense for drivers stopped at DUI check points since presumably there would be no evidence of any erratic driving in that situation either.

    No, this is a story about a driver who should have never been allowed to be driving after being arrested some 20 times for presumably serious traffic offenses. Not about his immigration status. And it's a story about the reckless behavior of an intoxicated driver whose actions contributed to the death of her passenger and most tragically the death of a little boy in the ice cream shop.

    Two people are to blame for the death of this little boy. Guntharp's punishment for her involvement has been meted out. Hernandez's punishment is yet to come and unfortunately for a little innocent boy, his punishment is long over due and again, not for being here illegally, but for being a dangerous menace to society on the road.

    Victims are not always innocent and villains are sometimes not stopped soon enough for reasons that are deeply seated in societal issues that many of us just sweep under the rug rather than making tough decisions.