In the past two weeks, two Colorado Springs men have been arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, the most serious and infrequent of charges in car crashes involving a death.

John R. Bentley, 34, who is accused of going 70 mph in a 40-mph zone and drunken driving, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide in a rollover crash last week on Stetson Hills Boulevard in which a passenger died, Colorado Springs police said.

Erick Ryan, 19, was arrested in the March 15 crash on South Circle Drive in which Ali Aashiq, a 15-year-old Palmer High School student, was killed trying to cross the street to catch a bus to school. Ryan’s 1991 Honda was going 71 mph in a 40-mph zone and trying to pass two other cars in the center turn lane when Aashiq was hit and killed.

Not every crash involving death brings a felony vehicular homicide charge, said police spokesman Lt. David Whitlock,  because it doesn’t involve the necessary aggravating circumstances.

To be charged with vehicular homicide in a fatal crash, police have to have evidence that a driver was driving recklessly, legally defined as the willful and wanton disregard of traffic laws, Whitlock said.

Among the aggravating circumstances necessary to charge a driver with vehicular homicide in a fatal crash are excessive speeding or driving while drunk or impaired.

If there’s no proof the driver intentionally disobeyed traffic laws, the charge for causing a fatal crash is careless driving involving death, Whitlock said.

It’s an important distinction — the maximum sentence for vehicular homicide involving drunken or impaired driving is 12 years in prison. Those guilty of careless driving involving death face a maximum of a year in jail.

It can also cause an outcry, as in the horrific death in March 2009 of Whitney Hendrickson. The 18-year-old college student was killed when Kelli McKay stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake while pulling into a west-side gas station, slamming another vehicle into the gas pumps which pinned Hendrickson against her van and engulfed her in flames.

With no evidence of reckless driving, police did not charge McKay with vehicular homicide, which was criticized by some who thought she deserved to be charged with a felony.

McKay pleaded guilty to careless driving resulting in death and was sentenced to five years probation, counseling and community service at the request of the Hendrickson family.

In 2008, Barbara Thomas, 63, initially was charged with two counts of vehicular homicide after she plowed into and killed two bicyclists on Colorado Springs’ west side while driving under the influence of morphine and barbiturates.

Thomas was eventually convicted of two counts of vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to three years in prison.

Bentley was driving a Kia sedan east on Stetson Hills Boulevard last Thursday just before 8 p.m. at 70 mph — 30 mph over the posted speed limit — when he lost control and the car overturned, according to the arrest affidavit. Joseph Gutierrez, 28, who was riding in the back seat, died after being thrown from the vehicle.

Front seat passenger Alicia Turpin, 31, survived with a fractured neck and a nearly amputated right arm. She was in good condition Wednesday at Memorial Hospital.

When interviewed by police at the hospital, Bentley’s eyes were “bloodshot and watery” and he answered questions with “slurred speech,” according to the arrest affidavit. The results of a blood-alcohol test were not released.

In addition to vehicular homicide, Bentley could face vehicular assault, DUI and reckless driving charges.

Ryan is scheduled to be charged at a hearing Friday.

John Bentley, left, and Erick Ryan Photo by