Vreen Sentenced For Crash 20-Year-Old Ordered To 89 Months In Prison

A Superior Court judge sentenced a Spokane man to more than seven years in prison Monday for causing a single-car wreck last fall that killed three teenagers.

Judge Linda Tompkins slapped 20-year-old James A. Vreen with the maximum sentence allowed under state guidelines, 89 months, after listening to 1-1/2 hours of often painful testimony from relatives of the victims.

“My heart aches for her so much, and my body aches for her so much,” said Charissa Campbell, older sister of victim Katherine Campbell, 18.

“I don’t want to grow up or grow old without her.”

Vreen’s attorneys and family had asked for leniency. Family included Vreen’s aunt, Sandra Dearman, whose son was killed in the wreck.

They said the former Cub Scout made a mistake and deserved a break. “He’s not a killer,” said his mother, Susan Vreen. “He values human life.”

His attorney, Matthew Harget, argued that the low end of the sentencing range - 67 months - should be imposed.

“Most of us drove too fast or drove after we were drinking or drove when we weren’t supposed to,” said Harget, who quoted a passage about mercy from Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice.”

Vreen apologized to the victim’s families and told Tompkins he would take whatever punishment she saw fit.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen,” said Vreen, clad in blue jeans and an untucked golf shirt. “Right now, if they gave me the death penalty, I’d take it.”

On July 31, a jury convicted Vreen of three counts of vehicular homicide and one count of vehicular assault for the Nov. 2 wreck in Peaceful Valley.

In addition to Katherine Campbell, 14-year-old Alicia Easterwood and 18-year-old John Rohloff, Vreen’s cousin, were killed in the crash. Wesley Forrester, then 16, suffered a broken pelvis.

The victims had accepted a ride from Vreen about midnight to pick up some camping equipment they had left at People’s Park west of downtown.

Vreen himself was badly injured and spent several days in the hospital. His mother said in court Monday that he has no memory of the crash or the hours immediately after it.

Police traffic investigators concluded Vreen was driving at least 60 mph in a 25-mph zone when his 1986 Buick careened off Clarke Street, crashed through a wooden railing and plummeted down an embankment.

The car then hit a tree, ripping off the roof and the passenger-side door and throwing the female victims onto the fog-shrouded ground.

Relatives of the victims testified Monday that the crash and its aftermath devastated their lives.

Katherine Campbell’s father, Terry, said the loss of his daughter “left an emotional scar that’s never going to heal.”

Her mother, Melinda Johnson, said she made “sounds that have never come out of a person’s mouth” when the police chaplain told her that her daughter had been killed.

James Easterwood, father of Alicia, said he held his three remaining daughters and wept openly with them when they heard the news of the crash.

Easterwood said he hoped Vreen reflects on his crime while in prison and comes out a changed person.

“If that happens, that will be a fitting memorial to my daughter and the other kids,” he said.