22-year-old Nicholas Crown Kunkler sentenced after wreck

A man who pleaded guilty in June to felony vehicular assault was sentenced Thursday.

Pitkin County District Judge Gail Nichols signed off on a four-year deferred sentence in the case against Nicholas Crown Kunkler, 22, of Aspen. He is a member of the Crown family, which owns Aspen Skiing Co.

Also during the sentencing hearing, Kunkler pleaded guilty to DUI. A charge of careless driving was dismissed by the court.

He was assessed fines totaling $4.965.50 related to the felony vehicular assault and DUI, and he was ordered to perform 80 hours of community service and to submit to random urinalysis. He cannot drink alcohol or smoke marijuana, according to the terms of the deferred sentence.

On March 16, Kunkler was involved in an accident that injured both him and his passenger, according to Aspen police. In a report, Officer Dave Rosselot wrote that he responded to the incident and found Kunkler and the passenger in a driveway.

He wrote that Kunkler “was nearly covered from head to toe in blood” and that “there was a very large laceration on the lower right side of his jaw that was bleeding profusely.” Both were rushed by ambulance to Aspen Valley Hospital.

The report states that the SUV he was driving failed to negotiate a curve near the 100 block of McSkimming Road. It left the road and went airborne before colliding with a tree and retaining wall, police said.

Rosselot’s investigation showed that Kunkler had been exceeding the 25-mph posted speed limit.