Driver sentenced in fatal, Christmas DUI crash that plunged 200 feet off Simi Valley cliff

The intoxicated driver behind the wheel of a deadly crash that plummeted 200 feet off a Simi Valley cliff on Christmas of 2022 has been sentenced, officials announced Friday. According to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, Michael Gordon Butler, 40, of Simi Valley, will spend four years in prison for the death of the passenger in his car that night. The passenger was identified as Coldren James Lee Udell Kiblinger, who was 23 years old at the time of his death. It happened on December 25, 2022, around 6:35 p.m. on Santa Susana Pass Road just east of Box Canyon Road. California Highway Patrol officers responded to a 911 call reporting that a Corvette had crashed and plummeted 200 feet down an embankment. “Butler, who had recently purchased the car, left a family Christmas gathering around 6:00 p.m. with 23-year-old Coldren as his passenger,” explained the DA’s Office. “When the pair failed to return, concerned relatives used location-tracking apps to find the crash site and contacted authorities.” CHP said investigators later determined that Butler was driving at a high rate of speed while impaired, lost control of the vehicle and struck trees and the hillside, “causing fatal injuries to Coldren.” Butler pled guilty on April 24, 2025, to one felony count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. When he was sentenced on May 20, the special allegations admitted included a serious felony and that the crime involved great violence. “This was a preventable tragedy,” said Deputy District Attorney Jillian Ewan, a member of the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office. “While no amount of time will bring Coldren back, I hope the guilty plea will give some sense of justice and closure for the hardship Coldren’s family and friends have endured.”