Father of suspect in hit-and-run killing pleads guilty to felony accessory charge
Cean Whitmarsh sentenced to 120 days of electronic home monitoring and four years of probation
An attorney representing the father of Sidney Whitmarsh on Wednesday said he believes his client wasn’t fully aware that his daughter had killed someone in a hit-and-run accident when he agreed to help her flee the state in January of 2024.
Judge Rachel Olguin-Fresquez said she did not share that same belief and sentenced Cean Whitmarsh, who pled guilty to felony accessory to a crime, to 120 days of electronic home monitoring and four years of supervised probation.
Whitmarsh was accused of helping his daughter flee Colorado and move to Arkansas, where he lives, following a Jan. 7, 2024 incident in which she is suspected of hitting and killing a bicyclist in Edwards. Sidney Whitmarsh was eventually apprehended in Arkansas in March and brought back to Colorado, and Cean Whitmarsh later turned himself into law enforcement in Eagle County.
Olguin-Fresquez detailed some of the facts of the case in issuing the sentence, saying that Sidney Whitmarsh had told Cean Whitmarsh, in text messages, that her friend Jaime Ledezma had visited the scene of the hit and run and saw someone lying in the snow.
“It appears to me that (Cean Whitmarsh) maintained somewhat of a plausible deniability by staying somewhat distant, but all indications are that he did know, I would say, arguably, that someone was killed,” Olguin-Fresquez said. “If there’s a body lying in a ditch and is there for several days, then obviously that person is deceased.”
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But Olguin-Fresquez also said she can appreciate Whitmarsh’s desire to help his daughter.
Whitmarsh gave a brief statement, apologizing to the family of Mario Vildozola Romero, the bicyclist who was found dead in the alleged hit-and-run accident for which Sidney Whitmarsh is suspected. Whitmarsh also referenced his military service.
“The awards and medals that I received while I was in the military show that I value life,” he said.
But the prosecuting attorney clarified that the exhibit labeled “pictures of medals earned” did not show military medals.
“These are challenge coins, your honor, they’re not actual medals or honors,” Deputy District Attorney Josh Savelkoul said.
Savelkoul said Whitmarsh’s military service was honorable, but it “cuts both ways” concerning the case.
“It does speak to his credit, his actions that he took to save lives,” Savelkoul said. “But it also shows that he can create a plan of action under stress, for instance, when his daughter calls and tells him that she killed someone. And that’s what happened, he created an action plan, he was able to see it through, he got his daughter 鈥� and evaded detection by law enforcement.”
Whitmarsh received a $100 fine, and a restitution of $6,042.79 was also ordered in the case, which will eventually be split between the case’s four co-defendants if they are found guilty.
Cean Whitmarsh is the first of the four co-defendants to receive sentencing in the case. Ledezma has a disposition hearing scheduled for Feb. 10; Sidney Whitmarsh is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 19 for a disposition hearing; and Sidney Whitmarsh’s mother Stephanie Whitmarsh is scheduled to make her first appearance in district court on March 12.
