Bail set for man accused of drunken driving in fatal Yakima crash
YAKIMA – A man accused of drunken driving in a Monday morning crash that killed a woman is being held on a quarter-million-dollar bail.
Yakima County Superior Court Judge Sonia Rodriguez True set bail during a preliminary appearance for the 25-year-old Yakima man Tuesday. She noted the dangers of drunken driving, the allegation a woman was killed in the crash and the man’s prior conviction on an offense listed in the state’s “three strikes law.”
Yakima police responding to a crash in the 300 block of East Lincoln Avenue found a 2003 Subaru Impreza crashed into a tree around 5:15 a.m. Monday. Alicia Ashby, 33, was found unresponsive in the back seat of the car and was taken to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, where she died in surgery, according to a probable cause affidavit.
An autopsy Tuesday determined that she died from blunt-force trauma, and her manner of death is deemed accidental, Yakima County Coroner Jim Curtice said.
Police located the car’s driver and another woman who was in the car a couple of blocks of away, police spokeswoman Yvette Inzunza said. The woman was also taken to Memorial, where she was treated and released, hospital spokesperson Bridget Turrell said.
The car’s driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI, hit-and-run causing injury and vehicular homicide. A drug-recognition expert determined that the man was intoxicated based on his slurred speech and dilated pupils, the affidavit said, while officers said there were containers of Modelo hard seltzer in the back seat floor area in the car and an odor of intoxicants in the passenger compartment.Arguing for the $250,000 bail, Deputy Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Brown said the man posed a danger to the community and was on community custody for a 2020 second-degree assault conviction at the time of the crash. The man had originally been charged with first-degree robbery and was accused of pistol-whipping the victim, Brown said, before he pleaded to a lesser charge.
If convicted of vehicular homicide, the man would have his second strike under the state’s “three strikes law,” Brown said. If someone is convicted of three “most serious” felonies, the sentence is a mandatory life without parole.
Defense attorney Beth Wehrkamp said a $50,000 bail would be more appropriate, as the crash is still under investigation and there is a question as to whether the other passenger in the car was responsible. She said the man told officers that the other woman grabbed the steering wheel while he was driving and jerked it, causing the car to crash.