A Rutland man has admitted responsibility for a car crash that killed an 18-year-old passenger in 2020, when police said the convertible flipped and trapped the woman underneath.
Gage Capen, 24, pleaded guilty in June to three charges reduced from felonies to misdemeanors. One is negligent vehicle operation in the death of Pownal resident Kianna Peters; two counts are negligent vehicle operation that seriously injured two other female passengers during the July 2020 car wreck in Proctor.
In exchange for Capen’s admission of guilt, the Rutland County State’s Attorney’s Office will recommend a jail sentence of nine months to four years at a court hearing on Sept. 14.
State police said earlier that Capen lost control of the 2000 Saab 9-3 after driving over the speed limit, failing to stay in his lane and trying to make Peters sit down. Capen had told investigators she’d been standing in the moving car and he was attempting to pull her back down — a statement that police said was corroborated by the other passengers.
Court records indicate the top-down convertible flipped and landed on its roof, trapping Peters underneath. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The other passengers — Kassandra Boardman, 19, and Tatiana Goulette, 23 — were ejected and suffered injuries such as lacerations and road rash, according to police. Capen, the only one who was wearing a seat belt, suffered head trauma and scrapes. No alcohol was found in his system.
Capen had originally been charged with three felony charges of grossly negligent vehicle operation that resulted in a fatality and serious injuries.
When asked about the downgrading of Capen’s charges, Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan cited a Vermont Supreme Court decision. It describes negligence as a breach of the duty to exercise ordinary care, whereas gross negligence “amounts to a failure to exercise even a slight degree of care,” a standard that requires more than “an error in judgment, momentary inattention, or loss of presence of mind.”
The state’s sentencing recommendation for Capen also encompasses the fact that he had violated probationary conditions in three older misdemeanor cases, Sullivan said.
He said the case has taken three years to reach a resolution partly because of a court backlog that built up during the coronavirus pandemic.
