Driver in fatal crash faces prison

PROVO — Ben Shaw shuffled into the courtroom, wearing shackles on his ankles and wrists and waving with his forefinger at family and friends who came to his sentencing for two automobile homicide charges.

They sat with their arms around each other, giving hugs or clutching notes they would read to the judge.

Dawnya Peery was in the front row, wiping tears away as she listened to Shaw's attorney ask for leniency and a chance at probation, rather than the potential of 30 years in prison.

"When the court sends somebody to prison, it's generally about punishment, more than necessarily about rehabilitation, at least in my estimation," said Andy Howell, Shaw's attorney. "Ben is and will be punished for the rest of his life, because two of his best friends are no longer alive and he was the cause of that."

Shaw, 23, and four friends had been drinking at a party on July 13 and left early that morning, intoxicated.

After driver Cody Fairbanks crashed into a sign, the passengers asked Stephan Peery to drive. He declined, and Shaw took the wheel.

Speeding nearly 30 miles over the limit, Shaw lost control of the Grand Am, hit a curb and slammed the car into a light pole at the intersection of 2230 North and University Parkway in Provo.

Peery, 20, died at the scene and passenger Ashley North, 20, died hours later at the hospital. Fairbanks, who wasn't expected to live, has now fully recovered, and Shaw and another passenger in the front seat were not seriously injured.

Maureen Squires, North's mother, wrote a note for the judge that was read by North's aunt at the hearing.

"This hasn't been easy for any of us," Squires wrote. "It doesn't feel like it will get any easier. Ben made the choice to drive the car home that morning, and he took the lives of two people. Whatever might be the outcome for Ben, it won't change the fact that my daughter's life is not complete."

Squires later described her daughter as someone who loved to camp, hike and was just an all-around good person.

Judge Claudia Laycock, who listened to the comments and told the audience she had read all of their letters, didn't agree with Howell's probation recommendation and instead sentenced Shaw to one to 15 years in prison. She agreed, however, that the two auto homicide charges, as well as a class A misdemeanor of attempted possession of a controlled substance, could all run concurrently.