Victim's family enraged
Son: Why was man arrested 16 times free to kill 3 in crash?
By Tom McGhee
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 09/08/2008 06:07:36 AM MDT
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Granddaughter Taylor Gagne, 8, holds a photo of Patricia Guntharp, 49. Other family members, from left: son Adrian Gagne; daughter-in-law Selina Gagne; son Robert Ray Guntharp II; granddaughter Halley Gagne, 3; husband Robert Ray Guntharp; and son Richard Gagne. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post )
Truck slams into ice cream shop; 3 killed, including childThree days after Francis M. Hernandez drove into Patricia Guntharp's pickup, killing her and two others, Guntharp's family wanted to know why a man with 16 arrests in five years wasn't already behind bars.
"Our system is messed up. It is mind-blowing. You mean to tell me that this guy was still out on the street?" asked Richard Allen Gagne, 32, Patricia Guntharp's son.
Hernandez's record includes forgery, assault, theft, fraud and driving under restraint. He was arrested in a July traffic stop and charged with resisting police and other offenses.
Immigration officials believe Hernandez is not a U.S. citizen and could be "deportable," Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok said Sunday.
ICE first became aware of Hernandez, whose Colorado Bureau of Investigation records show 11 aliases and several places and dates of birth, after he was arrested Thursday, Rusnok said.
ICE has placed a hold on him, and he will be transferred to federal custody if he is released from jail.
"Why in the world do they allow somebody to stay on the road when they could have done something about that?" asked Robert Guntharp, 56, Patricia Guntharp's husband.
Police say that Thursday, Hernandez, who was driving without a license, slammed his sport utility vehicle into Patricia Guntharp's Mazda pickup on South Havana Street in Aurora. The collision sent her vehicle careening into a Baskin-Robbins, where Marten Kudlis, 3, was ready to have some ice cream. Marten; Guntharp, 49, of Centennial; and her best friend and passenger in the truck, Debra Serecky, 51, of Aurora, died.
A man who identified himself as one of Serecky's sons declined to comment on the accident Sunday.
A spokesman for the Kudlis family didn't return a call asking for a family comment.
Patricia Guntharp and Serecky were inseparable friends, "like peanut butter and jelly," said Robert Guntharp.
The women met a dozen years ago when they were neighbors. Both had grown sons and grandchildren.
And both loved the frozen custard served at Good Times fast-food restaurants.
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From left: Adrian Gagne, Richard Gagne, holding his daughter Taylor, his wife Selina Gagne, Patricia and Robert Ray Guntharp and their youngest son Robert Ray Guntharp II. Robert Ray Guntharp, second from right, stands surrounded by family in the wake of his wife Patricia's death. Patricia was killed with a girlfriend in their car when it was t-boned by a driver who ran a red light. The force of the impact was so strong that their car was pushed into a Baskin and Robbins ice cream store with killed a 2 year old boy who was in line with his mother waiting to get ice cream. Guntharp leaves behind 3 sons and 2 grandchildren. She was 49 years old. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)
On the night they died, Patricia Guntharp had picked up Serecky, who was on a lunch break from the supermarket where she worked.
They were turning into a driveway leading to the South Havana Good Times when a blue Chevy Suburban that had been driving erratically smashed into their white pickup.
"She told me she would be out there about an hour," Robert Guntharp said. "The hours passed, and I called on her cellphone and I wasn't getting any answers. Then I saw lights out there, and I thought, 'Jeesh, it's about time.' "
He looked out the window and saw police walking toward his house.
"I am still hoping it is a bad dream, but it is not a dream; it's reality," Guntharp said.
Patricia Guntharp, whose two small granddaughters called her "Care Bear," broke her back in an auto accident about five years ago. Since then, she had gone through surgery and was scheduled to have another operation in the next few weeks.
Recently, doctors found a growth on her lungs.
But, her husband, said: "If she was sad and depressed, she never let us know about it."
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
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