by John Romero
GOLDEN --A 17 year old girl is now charged with vehicular homicide after police say she lied about being behind the wheel in a crash that killed another teen.The head-on collision happened March 13 on Alameda Pkwy. near Florda. 17 year old Samara Stricklen was killed in the accident. 20 year old Seth Mutschler was badly injured and is still recovering.Lakewood Police initially arrested 16 year old Allison Bowen for the crime. Investigators say when they arrived at the crash scene all occupants of the car believed to have caused the crash told them that Bowen was driving. Police say Bowen herself claimed to be behind the wheel.But investigators began having doubts after being confronted with evidence that Bowen may not have been the driver.Prosecutors in Jefferson County decided to take the case to a Grand Jury which heard evidence in the case.Prosecutors now say it was another girl -16 year old Nanette LaFleur- who was actually driving. LaFleur is now charged with Vehicular Homicide and lying to a Police officer. Court documents claim LaFleur was drinking vodka and smoking marijuana before getting in the accident. Prosecutors claim that she and Bowen switched places in the car to cover up who was really driving.Bowen is also charged with lying to a police officer and DUI as well because prosecutors say she was driving at some point in the evening.Van Thien Pham is also charged in the case because Police say he sold alcohol to the minors. Pham faces ten counts of Providing Alcohol to a Minor.Seth Mutschler, reacted to the charges today saying that he understood why the girls would try to allegedly cover up the crime. "They were scared" he said. But he also says he doesn't forgive them, and hopes they pay for what they allegedly did.
