{"id":2448706,"date":"2019-09-13T14:20:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T20:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=312818"},"modified":"2019-09-13T14:20:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T20:20:05","slug":"rifle-resident-convicted-of-vehicular-manslaughter-out-on-bond-skips-sentencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/rifle-resident-convicted-of-vehicular-manslaughter-out-on-bond-skips-sentencing\/","title":{"rendered":"Rifle resident convicted of vehicular manslaughter, out on bond, skips sentencing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Cody Christopher<\/strong>
<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Cody Christopher, convicted by jury of vehicular manslaughter in June, failed to appear for his sentencing hearing Friday and is now wanted on $50,000 cash-only bond.<\/p>\n

Christopher, 41, was out on bond throughout his trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed the defendant did not appear. I sincerely hope he is alright,\u201d Ninth District Judge John Neiley said Friday.<\/p>\n

At 9:15 a.m., Neiley entered the courtroom and noted Christopher\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we can\u2019t proceed without him here,\u201d Neiley said.<\/p>\n

Ann Roan, an attorney representing Christopher at the hearing, said she thought Christopher was going to be there. Roan also said she didn\u2019t know where her client was.<\/p>\n

Neiley said he would give him some more time to arrive, in case Christopher was stuck in construction traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that should be a valid excuse,\u201d Ninth District deputy prosecutor Sarah Nordgaard said.<\/p>\n

Christopher was likely coming from Rifle, Nordgaard said, and would not be affected by ongoing construction in south Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are plenty of people who made it here,\u201d Nordgaard added, referring to more than 20 of Christopher\u2019s friends and supporters, many of whom attended the trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Neiley reconvened the hearing at 9:40, and issued the bench warrant for Christopher\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n

Christopher was convicted of vehicular homicide for crashing a Ford Excursion while intoxicated Dec. 29, 2017, killing Matt Smith, then 41, and Trent Johnson, then 36.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s son, then 10 years old, was severely injured in the crash.<\/p>\n

In his testimony at the trial, Christopher maintained that he was not drunk<\/a> at the time of the crash, but drank heavily after hiking from the site of the crash, along Puma Paw Road north of Rifle, to a ranch house with the 10-year-old survivor.<\/p>\n

Christopher also suffered a head injury in the crash.<\/p>\n

Christopher\u2019s sentencing hearing was initially scheduled on a docket day, Aug. 22, where there would be limited time for the hearing.<\/p>\n

Christopher\u2019s defense attorney requested an \u201coff-docket\u201d hearing, because they wanted to schedule more time to present evidence at sentencing.<\/p>\n

Neiley noted that he was willing to listen to any and all friends or family of Christopher who wanted to speak regarding the sentencing.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Roan declined further comment, as did several friends of Christopher.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cody Christopher Cody Christopher, convicted by jury of vehicular manslaughter in June, failed to appear for his sentencing hearing Friday and is now wanted on $50,000 cash-only bond. Christopher, 41, was out on bond throughout his trial. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed the defendant did not appear. I sincerely hope he is alright,\u201d Ninth District Judge John Neiley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 17:46:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}