Release may be 4 years early

DENVER - Jennifer Vandresar, who caused a fatal collision while drunk and driving the wrong way on Interstate 25, could get out of prison early.

State parole board member Celeste C de Baca recommended after a parole hearing Wednesday morning that Vandresar be freed four years ahead of her mandatory release in 2011, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said.

Vandresar’s case will go to the full parole board for final approval because of the nature of Vandresar’s crime, C de Baca said. It could take about a month before it is reviewed, Sanguinetti said.

In July 2001, Vandresar collided head-on with a vehicle driven by Stuart Edwards of Colorado Springs, killing him. Prosecutors said she had driven 6½ miles the wrong way on the interstate and that her blood alcohol content was twice the legal limit for driving in Colorado.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Vandresar admitted that authorities also found she was on the drug ecstasy at the time of the crash.

The collision happened a year and four months after Vandresar’s husband, Paul Vandresar, hanged himself in the couple’s home. Then on New Year’s Eve 2000, her son, Tony Dutcher, and his grandparents, Carl and JoAnna Dutcher, were killed near Guffey by two teens, Isaac Grimes and Jonathan Edward Matheny. Simon Sue was convicted of ordering the killings as part of a bizarre paramilitary group he formed.

Vandresar has said that her son’s murder led to her getting drunk and causing the fatal crash. In 2006, she wrote a letter to 11th Judicial District Judge Kenneth Plotz of Park County, saying she had forgiven Grimes, Tony Dutcher’s best friend who admitted slashing his throat. He is currently serving a 60-year sentence at the San Carlos Correctional Facility in Pueblo.

Vandresar, currently serving a 10-year sentence for drunken vehicular homicide at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility in Denver, said she’s grown up a lot since her son’s death. She said at the hearing that the night of the crash was the last time she consumed alcohol or drugs.

“I feel at peace with myself and spiritually sound,” she told C de Baca. “I’m ready to go out there.”

Vandresar, 40, said that in the time that she has been in prison, she’s taken college

courses and has been able to focus on herself without the worry of “outside” factors.

Wearing a green jumper, glasses and a multicolored bracelet, she was accompanied at the hearing by her dog, Midnight, whom she has been working with through the prison’s canine program that helps inmates become certified pet-care technicians.

“I wouldn’t want to call it a luxury, but I’ve definitely benefited from being here,” she said. “I’ve been able to focus on myself without a mortgage, without relationships. I’m not worrying about money or things that take you away from being who you are.”

Vandresar said she’d like to live with her sister, Kathy Creech, in El Paso County and work at a pet store when she is released.

“I want to go home, live a quiet life and be with dogs,” Vandresar said.

Creech, who attended the hearing and provided the only other testimony, said she has seen significant change in her sister and hopes she will be paroled.

Sanguinetti said that four of the parole board’s seven members must agree with C de Baca’s recommendation for Vandresar to be released early. Vandresar would then be under parole supervision for five years. She must also pay off the rest of the $22,970 she owes in restitution. Vandresar said she has paid off about $5,000 since she has been incarcerated.