{"id":40280,"date":"2022-05-31T23:27:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T05:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/towaoc-man-pleads-guilty-to-vehicular-homicide-charge\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:54:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:54:30","slug":"towaoc-man-pleads-guilty-to-vehicular-homicide-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/towaoc-man-pleads-guilty-to-vehicular-homicide-charge\/","title":{"rendered":"Towaoc man pleads guilty to vehicular homicide charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Alden
Alden P. House faces charges of vehicular homicide in a crash south of Cortez that killed his passenger. (Courtesy 22nd Judicial District Attorney's Office)<\/span>Courtesy 22nd Judicial District Attorney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

In a surprise move Tuesday, Alden House of Towaoc pleaded guilty to charges of vehicular homicide during a motions hearing in District Court in Cortez.<\/p>\n

Judge Todd Plewe of the 22nd Judicial District Court, tentatively accepted the guilty plea. If it stands, remaining charges against House will be dropped.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the court accepts the plea, which it tentatively has, the defendant will simply be entering a conviction to that charge, and the remaining counts will be dismissed as part of the plea,\u201d District Attorney Matt Margeson said.<\/p>\n

House had been scheduled for a five-day trial on charges of causing a fatal crash in September 2021 on U.S. Highway 160\/491 about 5\u00bd miles south of Cortez . According to an arrest affidavit, he attempted to make a left turn into Eagle Claw Liquor & Gifts and collided with a southbound Ford F-150.<\/p>\n

The collision killed House\u2019s passenger, Robin Frost.<\/p>\n

According to the crash report, Frost was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, and House was not. The passengers in the pickup truck included two children, ages 5 and 2, who were not seriously injured.<\/p>\n

When House was taken to the hospital, Colorado State Patrol officers reported noticing a strong odor of alcohol on him. Empty alcohol containers were found in his vehicle.<\/p>\n

Vehicular homicide is a Class 3 felony in the state of Colorado, and House faces a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe normal sentencing range for a third-degree felony is up to 12 years in the Department of Corrections,\u201d Margeson said. \u201cThere are aggravating circumstances in this case such that he could receive up to 14 years. There is a minimum on the plea that says he cannot receive less than 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sentencing hearing has been set for June 21.<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

faces up to 14 years in prison for death of his passenger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,133,168,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84607,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40280\/revisions\/84607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40280"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}