ST. GEORGE — The driver involved in the crash on Old Highway 91 that left two people dead last spring was sentenced to prison on felony DUI automobile homicide charges during a hearing held in court in St. George last Thursday.
John Brett Sartor, 48, appeared in 5th District Court via video on Feb. 23 facing two second-degree felony counts of automobile homicide criminal negligence DUI, charges he pleaded guilty to during the sentencing hearing.
Five other charges – two third-degree felony counts of DUI with priors and three misdemeanors – including driving on a revoked license, a charge for being an alcohol-restricted driver and for failing to have an interlock device installed on his vehicle – were dismissed in exchange for a guilty plea.
Sartor made a video appearance from Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison where he is serving a sentence on a parole violation that was filed in connection to the double fatal collision.
April 3, 2022
The case was filed following a head-on crash reported April 3, 2022, on Old Highway 91 that killed Jacob Adam Cadreact and his fiancée Lindsay Lee Contreras.
The couple was on a motorcycle heading south when they were struck head-on by a Honda Accord that crossed over the median.
The couple was thrown from the bike and pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver of the Accord was injured and transported to the hospital and later identified as Sartor.
At the time of the crash, responders told investigators they detected the odor of alcohol coming from the suspect while at the scene, and later, investigators learned the driver had a blood alcohol level of .22, more than four times the legal limit in Utah.
During a background check, investigators also learned Sartor was an alcohol-restricted driver whose license had been revoked for alcohol-related offenses, and they also found Sartor was supposed to have an interlock device installed on the Honda as required by the court, yet they found no such device.
Charging documents filed at the time stated that based on the totality of the scene, the failure of Sartor to negotiate a long curve, the presence of alcohol and Sartor’s license status, as well as his history of driving under the influence with several prior cases involving DUI, investigators determined the driver was impaired at the time of the crash and the charges were filed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office.
Six days later the suspect was released from the hospital and arrested on a warrant issued by the Board of Pardons and was placed on a hold.
Sartor’s criminal history
The prison hold was filed in connection with three prior felony DUI cases, including a case filed in July 2020 that resulted in the defendant serving 0-5 years in prison.
The 2020 case was filed following an arrest by deputies in Salt Lake County on third-degree felony DUI – a charge Sartor pleaded guilty to in February 2021. By the time the 2020 case was filed, the suspect had seven prior DUI convictions within the previous 10 years, the investigator noted.
Included was a case that resulted in a felony DUI with serious injury charge filed against the defendant following a head-on crash reported on Feb. 8, 2016, in West Valley. The suspect reportedly attempted to flee the scene but was restrained by a bystander until police arrived. Despite an interlock requirement, no such device was installed on that car.
The officer also noted the suspect’s blood-alcohol level was .30 at the time of the crash, nearly four times the legal limit at the time, and also noted it was the fourth DUI arrest conviction for the suspect within a five-year period.
The suspect pleaded guilty to the DUI charge and was sentenced to serve one year in jail and placed on three years’ probation. He then violated the terms of his probation with the 2019 felony DUI arrest and violated both cases with the 2020 felony DUI arrest.
Sartor was also on parole for felony DUI convictions at the time of the head-on crash on Old Highway 91 that killed both riders last year.
Shattering losses
During the hearing held Thursday, large posters of Cadreact and Contreras were placed in the courtroom. Cadreact’s parents Ed and Robin Cadreact appeared via video from their home in New Hampshire, while the statement they prepared was read by Jennifer Young, a victim’s advocate coordinator with the Washington County Attorney’s Office.
During a visit from their son shortly before his death, his parents wrote they had no idea that would be the last time they would “hear his voice, his laugh or see his face,” they said in the victim impact statement.
“This was the last time we saw our son.”
It was shortly after that visit that their lives were drastically changed, when at midnight on April 3, 2022, an officer knocked on the door of their New Hampshire home and told them their son had been killed in a crash.
Within days of their son’s death, they received a call from the president of the company their son worked for “to let us know how much of a valued employee he was and how much he’d be missed.”
Young also read a statement from Amanda Howe, the mother of Cadreact’s 15-year-old son Xabian Cadreact, who said her son had planned to move to Utah to be with his father before he was killed — dreams that were “shattered on April 3, 2022,” she said in the statement.
Howe went on to say that Xabian Cadreact “will not get to have hours and hours of time with this father. All my son has now are his memories.”
Contreras’ mother Mary Contreras said that on the day her daughter was killed, she first received a call from her grandson asking where his mother was, so she said she ran over to her daughter’s house to check on her. She said she received the call from one of her other children telling her that her daughter was gone.
“I saw Lindsay’s car in the driveway so I knew she wasn’t gone,” Mary Contreras said. “But then I realized what my other daughter meant when she said, ‘No mom, she’s gone, like in an accident,'” she said.
At that moment, she said, “The world stopped.”
Lindsay’s father Todd Contreras who was in California on business when the incident took place, also spoke and described the moment when he received the phone call notifying him that his daughter had been killed, saying, “I fell to my knees.”
He went on to describe his daughter as “full of life,” and said she was a wonderful mother to her young son, Colton, adding that his daughter’s eyes “were never bigger or brighter as when she was speaking about him.”
Todd Contreras also said that his daughter’s love of children was also reflected in her career as an elementary school teacher and later when she “found her true calling” as a teacher at St. George Regional Hospital’s Child Development Center. He said she had a love of animals and rescued many of them, including birds that had fallen from the nest, kittens that needed a home and wanted to take in “every puppy she ever met.”
He went on to say his daughter’s memory was memorialized within St. George Regional Child Development Center Fairy Garden.
Todd Contreras also spoke of those who stopped to help on the day of the crash, including an off-duty paramedic who stopped and tried to save the couple’s lives. He also said the prosecutor in the case, Jerry Jaeger, did “an amazing job” in bringing justice to both families.
The defendant spoke as well, saying, “I take full responsibility for the accident,” which he said was caused when he swerved to avoid hitting a deer and then cross over the median as he did so. He went on to say it was a “split second” decision for which he will never forgive himself..
“And that one moment will haunt me the rest of my life,” he said.
Sartor’s defense attorney Ryan Stout said his client has accepted responsibility, not just in his statements but in his actions by pleading guilty to the charges with the understanding that he will be in prison “basically at the discretion” of the Board of Pardons. He then asked that the court follow the stipulated agreement.
The prosecutor said the defendant’s actions resulted in the loss of “two amazing people.”
“There’s nothing that can be done about that,” Jaeger added, and then asked the judge to run both prison sentences consecutively.
The ruling
District Judge Keith C. Barnes also commented prior to ruling and became emotional as he addressed the victims’ families, saying he was touched by “the goodness” and courage portrayed by both families during the hearing.
“May the strength of your stories and loved ones carry you through this,” he said
Barnes then sentenced the defendant to serve 1-15 years in prison on each of the charges, as agreed to by the parties, which is the maximum sentence allowed. He also ordered the sentences to run consecutively.
Photo gallery
2013 file photo of St. George Regional Hospital Child Development Center Fairy Garden, St. George, Utah, June 2, 2013 | Photo courtesy of St. George Regional Hospital, St. George News
Photo of Lindsay Contreras, one of the riders who is killed in in a motorcycle crash on Old Highway 91 in Washington County, Utah, April 3, 2022, location, date of photo not specified | Photo courtesy of Mary Contreras, St. George News
Photo of Lindsay Lee Contreras, one of the riders who is killed in a motorcycle crash on Old Highway 91 in Washington County, Utah, April 3, 2022, location, date of photo not specified | Photo courtesy of Mary Contreras, St. George News
L-R: Jacob Cadreact and Lindsay Contreras, who were both killed in DUI crash on Old Highway 91 in Washington County, Utah on April 3, 2022, location, date of photo not specified | Photo courtesy of Mary Contreras, St. George News
2013 file photo of St. George Regional Hospital Child Development Center Fairy Garden, St. George, Utah, June 2, 2013 | Photo courtesy of St. George Regional Hospital, St. George News
L-R: Jacob Cadreact and Lindsay Contreras, who were both killed in DUI crash on Old Highway 91 in Washington County, Utah on April 3, 2022, location, date of photo not specified | Photo courtesy of Mary Contreras, St. George News
Booking photo of John Brett Sartor, 48, following his arrest in Washington County for felony automobile homicide DUI following crash that kills two motorcycle riders, Washington County, Utah, April 9, 2022,| Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff's Office, St. George News
Booking photo of John Brett Sartor, 48, following his arrest in Washington County for felony automobile homicide DUI following crash that kills two motorcycle riders, Washington County, Utah, April 9, 2022,| Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff's Office, St. George News
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