Suspect in Fatal Crash Surrenders

After more than a month as a fugitive, a 19-year-old Santa Clarita man surrendered to California Highway Patrol investigators Monday to face charges stemming from a car crash that killed his boyhood friend.

Moments before his arrest at the Saugus Cafe on San Fernando Road, Benjamin Thomas Sutton said in an interview that he wanted to “do the right thing” by surrendering.

CHP officers contend that Sutton was drunk and driving at up to 100 mph on a Saugus road Nov. 27 when he lost control of his Honda Civic and slammed into a light pole, killing his friend and passenger, 20-year-old Arthur Robert Meza of Canyon Country.

Sutton is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Newhall Municipal Court, where he will face charges including second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter, drunk driving and felony hit-and-run driving, said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Rosabella Reyes.

She said prosecutors would ask that bail be set at $1.2 million.

As a condition of surrender, Sutton asked to be placed in protective custody on grounds that he might become a target of retribution for Meza’s death. CHP investigators declined comment on that, but assured Sutton he would be isolated from other inmates.