A Parker man was sentenced for a 2014 drunk-driving crash that killed two Monument teens. Marshal Douglas Gregory, 18, was sentenced to four years in the
Youth Offender System. He later pleaded guilty to two counts
of vehicular homicide-DUI.I wrote the following story after the tragic accident when I was working at the Tri-Lakes Tribune and it ran in several affiliated Douglas County newspapers at the time.
By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmailTwo Palmer Ridge High School students were killed and two others were
taken to a hospital with injuries early Labor Day morning after a
one-car accident that happened on Hodgen Road, near Roller Coaster Road.
Two of the passengers, identified as 17-year-old Beau Begier and
18-year-old Ryan Pappas, both were pronounced dead at the scene.
A second 17-year-old passenger, Mitchell "Jack" Clark, suffered
serious injuries and was transported to a local hospital via air
ambulance. He was still in Penrose-St. Francis Health Services Hospital
on Friday, listed in "fair" condition.
The driver, 17-year-old Marshal Douglas Gregory, from Parker (former
Palmer Ridge student), was wearing his seatbelt and suffered minor
injuries. After he was released from the hospital, he was taken into
custody.
The Colorado State Patrol sought vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges
against the driver, according to a news release, and he was formally
charged in a Friday court appearance.
In that same appearance, juvenile court Magistrate Denise Peacock
announced that he would be tried as a minor and released into his
parents' custody with a court-ordered tracking device required. That
tracking device is to be provided by Parker Police. Restrictions of no
driving and remaining under adult supervision at all times, also were
applied.
The driver, was taken by ambulance to Penrose-St. Francis Health
Services hospital in Colorado Springs. A passenger in the car was flown
by helicopter to the same hospital, said Trooper Nate Reid, spokesman
for the Colorado State Patrol. The crash happened just after 1 a.m.
Monday, (Labor Day, Sept. 1) morning.
"A 2009 Cooper Mini convertible was traveling eastbound on E. Baptist
Assembly Road at a high rate of speed when the driver failed to stop at
a stop sign at Roller Coaster Road. As the vehicle crossed Roller
Coaster Road, it became airborne. It then lost control and spun off the
north side of the road, through a ditch, and a grove of trees until it
came to rest on its wheels," says the release from the State Highway
Patrol.
The CSP report says the teen driver appears to have driven through a
stop sign at 80 m.p.h. in a 40 mph zone. The car hit a bump in the road
and went airborne for nearly 60 feet, bounced, went another 65-plus
feet airborne, bounced again traveling airborne nearly 40 feet. then
crashed through a fence and into a tree.
"The Cooper’s driver, a 17-year-old male from Parker, was wearing his
seatbelt and suffered minor injuries. He was transported to a Penrose
Main for treatment. After being released from the hospital, the driver
was arrested and taken to a juvenile detention facility," the initial
release said.
"Two of the Cooper’s passengers, identified as 17-year-old Beau
Begier of Monument, and 18-year-old Ryan Pappas, also from Monument,
were pronounced dead at the scene. Begier was not wearing his seatbelt
and was ejected from the vehicle after it collided with the trees.
Pappas was wearing his seatbelt and remained inside the vehicle, but
suffered fatal injuries as well.
"A third passenger, a 17-year-old male from Monument, (Mitchell
"Jack" Clark, as later identified) was wearing his seatbelt and remained
inside the vehicle, but suffered serious injuries as a result of the
crash. He was transported to a local hospital via helicopter, where he
is being treated for his injuries," the early CHP report said.
The four teens in the crash were all suspected of drinking alcohol
prior to the crash. "At this time, alcohol use and high speed are
considered to be factors in the crash, which remains under
investigation."
Gregory is scheduled to appear in El Paso County Court again Oct. 6, for a pre-trial conference.
The following account appeared several years later in "A Light in Dark Places" in (Douglas County School District publication 9/14/2017)
PUEBLO - Labor Day weekend wasn’t supposed to be like this. In 2014 Legend High School student Marshal Gregory took the long weekend to party with his friends in Monument. They had too much to drink and were involved in a car crash that killed two passengers and seriously injured another. He is now serving time at the Youthful Offender System in Pueblo. He wants to share his story in hopes of convincing kids like him to make safe decisions.
“I always tell him that I think that
he’s meant to be a light in dark places,” says his mother Jackie
Souverein. She makes the two hour drive from Parker to visit her son
every other week or so. “And that’s why dark things sometimes happen to
us.” These words aren’t always easy to process for Gregory. “How do I go
about my life and make it meaningful for what had happened? I don’t
know how I do that,” he wonders.
“There was a lot of things I did
wrong that led up to it,” he admits. “My mom and my stepdad had gone up
to the mountains for the weekend.” After work he joined up with his
friends at a party. “A lot of people are drinking. A lot of people are
smoking. I instantly start smoking. That was probably the first thing
that I did.”
“At some point Beau comes up to me
and he’s like ‘Man all the girls left.’ Like the girls that he was
talking to left and I was like ‘ok.’”
Gregory left with his longtime friend
Beau Begier. They met up with friends Ryan Pappas and Jack Clark at a
Park and Ride in Monument. Their mission was to go find the girls that
had left the party. This meant going to the house of some other boys.
“We pretty much got denied. We got told that we can’t come in,” recalls
Gregory.
“Now I’m drunk, angry, and driving.”
The four boys from the party returned to the car and started driving.
“It wasn’t even like, ‘yeah I’m gonna take the quickest way and go right
back to the house,’” Gregory said. “It’s like - ‘I’m gonna drive fast
and go for a little joyride almost.’”
In his drunk and high state, Gregory remembers Pappas saying “slow
down.” That’s when he went through a stop sign at the intersection of
Roller Coaster Road and Baptist Road. “It was over. I had no control.”
He had hit a bump. The car went flying and landed in a ditch amongst the
trees of the Black Forest.
When he got out of the car he dialed 911. He was hysterical as he tried to communicate with the operator.
“Oh my God!”
“Marshal can you hear me?”
He looked at his friend Beau lying on the ground. “And after knowing
this kid for so long, I just…knew that he wasn’t there anymore.”
Life These Days
After a difficult trial he ended up at the Youthful Offender System
in Pueblo, Colorado. That’s where spends his time reflecting. “There is
no way to make it right.
There is nothing that I can do to that’s going to make this better. There’s nothing that will make the families feel better.”
He receives encouragement from his mom. She faithfully visits him
about every other weekend. “I've always been proud of Marshal, but I
would say this transformation I’m really proud of who he’s become,” says
Souverein.
Gregory knows he has made progress. “I feel like I have accomplished
so much more being sober in these past three years than I did my whole
high school career. I don’t have any ambitions to drink. I don’t have
any ambitions to smoke. If I could take back anything from the night it
would be the drinking and the driving.”
As his mother gets up to go back home for another two weeks Gregory
continues to have time to reflect on that weekend that didn’t end the
way he planned. “You gotta think about what you really want to get out
in life. And you gotta realize that you don’t need anything else but you
to get there.”
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