More delays for mother-daughter duo accused of covering up hit-and-run homicide in Edwards
Sidney Whitmarsh has been charged with vehicular homicide for the death of Edwards resident Mario Romero
Hit-and-run suspect Sidney Whitmarsh and her mother, Stephanie Whitmarsh, both saw delays in their cases on Wednesday in Eagle County District Court.
Sidney Whitmarsh has been charged with vehicular homicide for the death of Edwards resident Mario Romero during the early morning hours of Jan. 7, 2024. She has also been charged with conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence for her suspected participation in an alleged plot to move Romero’s body. Stephanie Whitmarsh is alleged to have participated in that conspiracy, as well, and has been charged with accessory, tampering with physical evidence and concealing death.
Stephanie Whitmarsh was arrested and charged on April 29, 2024, for her alleged role in the conspiracy but won’t have to enter a plea until August at the earliest. Her plea hearing was put on hold on Wednesday to wait out a trial in another felony case she was charged with later in 2024. Stephanie Whitmarsh has pleaded not guilty in that second case, in which she is accused of embezzling from her former employer, and is facing felony charges for theft, cybercrime to commit theft and unauthorized use of a financial transaction device.
That trial had been scheduled for July but was postponed on Wednesday until the week of Aug. 11-15 at the request of District Attorney Heidi McCollum, who is handling the case. While McCollum requested a delay in that case, she also objected to any further delays in Stephanie Whitmarsh’s other case, saying the first case has nothing to do with the second.
“If she testifies in either,” McCollum said, “one of the cases has to come first.”
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Judge Rachel Olguin-Fresquez scheduled the plea hearing for Aug. 20.
Stephanie Whitmarsh’s attorney, Mark Rubinstein, said the scheduling of the plea for after the trial will help his client avoid possible prejudice from the jury. But McCollum said if plea negotiations fall through, “then all we’ve done is kicked this case out for absolutely no reason.”
Stephanie Whitmarsh will be the last of the three people charged as accomplices in Romero’s death to see her case resolved. In February, Sidney Whitmarsh’s father, Cean Whitmarsh, was sentenced to 120 days of electronic home monitoring and four years of supervised probation after pleading guilty to accessory. In March, Avon resident Jaime Ledezma was sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty to felony tampering with physical evidence.
At a preliminary hearing for Sidney Whitmarsh in November, Colorado State Patrol Trooper Colin Remillard showed evidence of Romero’s body being moved from the location where he would have landed after being struck on Jan. 7, 2024. Romero said Whitmarsh fled from the state of Colorado after the crime occurred, but he was eventually able to locate her in Arkansas and obtain her cell phone, which contained text messages indicating a substantial level of intoxication on her part.
Other texts indicated that Ledezma, Stephanie Whitmarsh and Cean Whitmarsh were aware that the crime had occurred, Remillard said, with one text message between Stephanie and Sidney Whitmarsh referencing a “plan.”
Sidney Whitmarsh also appeared before Olguin-Fresquez on Wednesday for a plea hearing of her own, but it was pushed back to July 9.
It was the most recent in a series of delays for Sidney Whitmarsh — at a hearing on April 30, Olguin-Fresquez referenced the fact that she had already been in custody for more than a year at that point, after being arrested in Clarendon, Arkansas, on March 20, 2024.
“On (June 11), if there’s not going to be a plea agreement, we’ll go ahead and get on a trial track,” Olguin-Fresquez said at the April 30 hearing.
But on Wednesday, McCollum was convincing in her rationale for another delay. She said her office is nearing a plea in the case but needs more time to get in touch with the victim’s family.
“While the victim in this particular case has been very active, despite multiple attempts, we’re just having difficulty with the phone number,” McCollum said. “Technically, we have complied with (Victim Rights Act laws), but in a case like this, I do not want to move forward at all until we have spoken directly with that victim.”
