Edwards woman charged with multiple hit-and-run crimes to consider plea deal

Attorney Mark Rubinstein told Eagle County Judge Inzi Causey on Tuesday that he has received the latest plea offer in the case of Stephanie Whitmarsh, the mother of hit-and-run suspect Sidney Whitmarsh.

But Rubinstein said he needs to ask for one last delay in the case while he works out the final details. Causey adjourned the case to January 7.

Whitmarsh is accused of several crimes in connection with the case concerning her daughter. The case is related to a January incident involving Edwards resident Mario Romero was found dead near Highway 6about 21 feet from the north side of the road down the embankment.

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Colorado State Patrol Investigator Colin Remillard said he believes Romero’s body was moved. Text messages exchanged between Sidney and Stephanie Whitmarsh, obtained by Remillard, indicate that Stephanie knew about the body being moved, Remillard said in Stephanie Whitmarsh’s testimony.

In the text messages, Stephanie Whitmarsh suggested she was going to visit the crime scene, while Sidney Whitmarsh warned against it.

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“I don’t know, mom,” Sidney Whitmarsh said in a text message, according to the affidavit.

“Don’t worry about it,” Stephanie Whitmarsh replied. “I have a good plan. Just trust me.”

During a court hearing in April, the prosecutor said that the evidence showed that Stephanie Whitmarsh “drove by the scene, quote, ‘to make sure you didn’t see anything from the road'” and that “not only did she know about his death, she knew that his body was hidden, and did nothing.”

Stephanie Whitmarsh was charged with felony counts of accessory to a felony, tampering with evidence and concealing a death.

They are also accused of embezzlement

Causey on Tuesday also set a Jan. 7 trial date for Stephanie Whitmarsh. a separate criminal case in which she is accused of stealing from her employer. Whitmarsh’s attorney was unable to attend court Tuesday to discuss the case.

The allegations in the embezzlement case date back to a year before the hit-and-run case.

According to an arrest affidavit, Avon Police Detective Theresa Reno first contacted Stephanie Whitmarsh about the theft charge on April 3, about two weeks after her daughter was arrested in Arkansas.

Reno obtained records from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment that show Whitmarsh earned $108,870 between October 2021 and September 2022, and her employer told police the total was suspicious because it more than doubled her previous income. year

Reno said in reviewing information provided to Stephanie Whitmarsh, her employer, and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, she found four areas of fraud, including double hourly billing; accrued unaccounted hours and mileage; unauthorized use of a business credit card and reimbursement of personal expenses; and out-of-town billing hours.

There is also probable cause that Whitmarsh committed felony theft, a Class 4 felony, when Whitmarsh double-billed hours, recorded unaccounted time and mileage, and submitted fraudulent reimbursements for personal items totaling $44,047.41 USD, according to the affidavit.

Stephanie Whitmarsh is also charged with cybercriminal unauthorized access, a Class 4 felony, for unauthorized access to the company’s computer network and logging “fraudulent time clock entries for unscheduled time such as weekends or out-of-town vacations.” according to the oath.