Man Surrenders to Face Charges in Fatal Crash
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 appear Wednesday in Newhall Municipal Court to enter a plea to charges including second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter, drunk driving causing injury and felony hit-and-run driving, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Rosabella Reyes.
She said prosecutors would ask that bail be set at $1.2 million.
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