Left inset: Amy Dalton (El Paso County Sheriff's Office). Right inset: Robert "Bob" Selle (Colorado Lions Camp). Background: The Colorado home of Robert "Bob" Selle, where he was hit and killed by Amy Dalton while riding a lawn mower in his front yard (Google Maps).
A Colorado woman is headed to prison for plowing into a "grandpa" with her Subaru as he was mowing his front yard, killing the 79-year-old in front of his wife after getting high on marijuana.
Amy Dalton, 38, was sentenced to four years behind bars last week after being convicted of vehicular homicide while under the influence of a substance. She told her 7-year-old son, "I love you. I promise that I will be back, OK?" before being taken away to prison, according to The Gazette.
During her sentencing hearing, Dalton reportedly told the court, "I will carry the weight of this tragedy with me for the rest of my life. I accept full responsibility … I do not expect forgiveness, but I can ask."
The El Paso County mom admitted to smoking marijuana and taking other drugs before she sent Robert "Bob" Selle, 79, "flying" to his death as his wife, Donna, watched.
Donna Selle ran outside and was "talking with" her husband right before he died on their front lawn, police said.
"She was watching him through the front window of their house when she observed a silver car, that appeared to be going too fast, become airborne, [and] hit her husband, sending him flying off the lawn mower," police reported in the arrest affidavit, which was obtained by Law&Crime.
Dalton killed Bob Selle on Aug. 24, 2025, in front of his home in Calhan, a small town about 80 miles southeast of Denver. A neighbor's security camera captured the vehicular homicide on video, with Dalton's 2016 Subaru Outback flying off the road and plowing into Bob Selle.
"Dalton's Subaru became airborne over the driveway," the affidavit said. "As the Subaru landed, it collided with a barbed wire fence and then traveled into the yard/field … where it (Subaru) collided with Robert Selle, who was operating a riding lawn mower."
Cops said the security footage showed Dalton's vehicle "as it's overturning" before it slammed into Bob Selle. "The Subaru continued overturning in the field, coming to rest on its roof," the affidavit said. "Selle was knocked from the lawn mower and came to rest on the ground near the Subaru."
Bob Selle was initially responsive "and talking with his wife, who witnessed the crash," before he became unconscious and died at the scene.
"For no obvious reason at the time, Dalton failed to maintain control of the Subaru and the vehicle drifted off the right/west side of the roadway," the affidavit said. "After analyzing the Subaru's ACM [airbag control module] data, it's clear that Dalton never applied the brakes or applied any evasive steering input in the seconds leading up to the crash."
Cops spoke with Dalton after the crash and reported "a strong odor of marijuana coming from her," according to the affidavit. She admitted that she "consumes marijuana daily" and takes "multiple medications," while also confessing that she "had recently tried methamphetamine for the first time."
Cops who interviewed Dalton said she seemed "mellow" and was "not very responsive" to EMS questions or treatment. One trooper noted afterward that her eyelids "seemed very heavy," per the affidavit.
Dalton blamed the crash on having "two bad tires" that she claimed caused her to drive erratically. She also said she thought she "overcorrected but could not expand on that," according to the affidavit. "Dalton explained that the steering began to feel 'weird' and 'funny,'" police said.
Dalton agreed to a voluntary drug test, which showed at least two substances in her system that cops said contributed to the crash.
Bob Selle's obituary describes him as a "pillar" in the communities he lived in over the years, as well as a loving husband and grandfather of five.
"As condolences continue to pour in, Bob Selle is being remembered as a legacy, an inspiration, a hero, a great human being, a role model, kind, caring, generous, an amazing person, a class act, a loving husband, a teacher, a leader, a great man, one of the best, and as respect personified," the obituary says. "And yet, of all these descriptors, his favorite one was 'Grandpa Bob.'"
Speaking to The Gazette after Dalton's sentencing, Bob Selle's son said, "There's no positive outcome for any of this for anybody. I'm just glad it's over."