Teen won’t face prison after pleading guilty in UTV crash that killed 17-year-old girl

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An Oregon teen won’t face prison time after taking a plea deal following a deadly crash involving him riding an off-road vehicle on Sauvie Island that killed another teenager back in May.

Ayden Heard, 18, changed his plea to guilty in the death of 17-year-old Ava Crews of Scappoose. He pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide but won’t serve prison time.

This comes after Heard initially pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, reckless driving and driving under the influence of intoxicants.  

Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez said this was a plea agreement that was reached after conversations with Crews’ family.

“This office will always be guided by the idea that we will serve this community with compassionate accountability,” Vasquez said.

The DA said the Crews’ family wanted accountability but also to rehabilitate Heard for the future.

Heard has just turned 18 a few days before the crash. Court documents said he was among a group of teens drinking alcohol at a barn on Sauvie Island back in May, celebrating the end of final exams. According to court documents, he was driving a utility terrain vehicle on private property, with Crews as the passenger, when the vehicle flipped over after a sharp turn, killing her. Heard has admitted to drinking alcohol beforehand.

Instead of facing prison time for criminally negligent homicide, he was sentenced to five years of probation, no drinking, and he is forbidden to drive any vehicles. His driver’s license was permanently revoked. The DA explained more about his decision to offer Heard the plea deal.

“I’ll tell you that what stood out for me, certainly, was the wishes of Ava’s family. But additionally, you know, in this case, I would say extremely early and very often, what we heard out of this young man was that he wanted to take accountability — that he was immediately taking steps to, you know, to engage in things like treatment,” Vasquez said.

Heard must also complete 400 hours of community service, including speaking at DUII victim impact panels.

“Those are individuals that are arrested for drunk driving, but maybe have not hurt someone. So he will be sharing his story. So that, hopefully, it will bring home to those individuals the danger of that behavior and that, hopefully, will be saving lives. So that’s the goal,” Vasquez said.

Crews would have turned 18 years old on Tuesday. Her family has set up a legacy scholarship fund awarded to a Scappoose graduating student who wants to study in the field of mental health. Community members, family and friends displayed green hearts at the courthouse to show support and remembrance for Crews and her family, as green was her favorite color.

Brooke Crews, Ava’s mom, said she’s celebrating her daughter’s life, despite the tragedy.

“We miss our daughter horribly, and we wish that we all didn’t have to be going through this,” Brooke said. “It’s not something that I would wish upon anyone, and it’s heart-wrenching, but we’re doing our best to make it through.”

Brooke explained that her family pushed for a lenient sentence for Heard since she wanted to focus on accountability while still giving him a chance to rebuild after the tragic mistake.

“I mean, gosh, we’ve learned so much about the legal system in the last several months, and I wish I didn’t have to understand these things,” Brooke said.

The families for both Ava and Heard have remained close throughout the ordeal.

“We’ll continue to be in touch and will continue to be in his corner and advocate for him to live a life that he deserves to live,” Heard said.

Ava’s favorite parking spot at Scappoose High School is now adorned with the same green hearts that populate the town at large.