Page 51 - AreaNewsletters "May 2021" issue

Answer to Trivia question: I-25 at MP 184 was known as Silver Heights before Founders and Meadows Parkways were built.
I’m honored to be able to share some of my personal memories of living and working in Castle Rock, and I hope you check back
each issue to enjoy them.
~ Lora Thomas, County Commissioner
I had a trooper watch him while I called Headquarters. I needed an authorization to interview the driver, which I received from Major Jim Yarrington. Armed with a tape recorder from jail sta , I read Rickstrew his Miranda Rights in an interview room. He immediately waived those rights.
During the 38-minute interview, I asked Rickstrew who was driving the van; he said he was the only one. When asked about the damage to the van, which was owned by Haas, the passenger, Rickstrew said “There was a g__d___ deer; there was a deer that opped out in front of me, and I don’t really think that I hit it, but I did hit something.”
After several comments about hitting a deer, Rickstrew said, “It was like in the middle of the night, you know, I thought for sure I hit the deer but in my own words I don’t think I hit that deer... I hit something, but I don’t think it was a deer. The deer was there and I thought it was at rst, but I got, you know. I really don’t think I hit that deer.”
At that point, Sgt. Hauger walked into the interview room behind Rickstrew and mouthed the words, “Charlie just died.”
There was a part of me
that wanted to reach
across the table and grab
Rickstrew, but then an incredible sense of peace came over me. I knew that I needed to be sure, for my friend, Charlie, that I dotted every “I” and crossed every “T”
so that my case was perfect when it was presented to the District Attorney. I owed that to Charlie and his family.
Rickstrew was charged with Vehicular Homicide, Leaving the Scene of an Accident Resulting in Death, Driving Under the In uence, Driving with Excessive Alcohol Content (blood alcohol of .252, two and a half times the legal limit at the time and more than three times today’s limit) and Driving Under Suspension, Revocation or Denial.
I testi ed at the trial and what I most remember is, as the jury listened to the recording of the interview I conducted in the jail the night Charlie was killed, they slid back in their chairs, folded their arms and glared at Rickstrew.
Because Rickstrew was on probation the night he killed Charlie Fry, he was sentenced to 16 years for vehicular homicide and a concurrent one-year sentence for leaving the scene of an accident.
Years later I testi ed at Rickstrew’s parole hearing in Ri e; he was not paroled. He served his complete sentence, and within six months of being released from prison, he was once again arrested for DUI.
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Castle Rock “AreaNewsletters” • May 2021