Up to 36 weeks.
That’s how long a Lopez Island teen will be confined to a state-run juvenile detention center for the fatal collision in July in which he struck and killed a Canadian man while racing along Lopez Sound Road in a souped-up Chevy Nova.
The boy, who recently turned 16, was also ordered to serve a total of 45 additional days in detention in connection with the five other criminal charges, including two counts of vehicular assault, a Class B felony, that followed in the wake of the crash, and to which he pleaded guilty in mid-Decemember. His confinement begins Monday.
The boy must perform 225 hours of community restitution and pay $790 in fines and fees as well.
It’s not the result local prosecutors were looking for. But Skagit County Judge John Meyer, filling in for Judge Alan Hancock, determined that penalties beyond the standard range set by the state for juvenile offenders were not warranted in handing down the sentence Jan. 8 in San Juan County Superior Court.
Prosecutors were seeking a sentence in which the boy would serve up to three years in detention, which was contested by the teen’s attorney, Bellingham-based attorney Mark Kaiman, a former local deputy prosecutor.
In his decision, Meyer noted that the “weight is on the court” to follow the standard range unless there are “aggravating factors” that would compel a sentence beyond the norm. In the case of juveniles, the state standard for vehicular homicide, a Class A felony, is 15-36 weeks in juvenile detention. State juvenile authorities will determine the amount of time the boy spends in detention.
The boy, though unlicensed to drive, was northbound and barreling down the two-lane road at 70 mph or more when, with a 17-year-old friend in the passenger seat begging him to slow down, the Nova came up over a rise in the road at about 2:30 p.m. Neither boy was wearing a seat belt, according to authorities.
Approaching from the opposite direction on bicycles were a Seattle couple and their two young daughters. On the other side of the road, 26-year-old Paul Jaholkowsky of Abbortsford, B.C., was out on a mid-afternoon jog. The Nova first clipped the couple’s 7-year-old daughter at a high-rate of speed, breaking her wrist and mangling the ring finger of her right hand, which was later amputated. It then hurtled across the road and struck Jaholkowsky head-on.
Authorities believe Jaholkowsky died instantly as he was struck by the full-force of the oncoming sedan. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The boy’s friend was thrown against the windshield and then ejected from the vehicle as it twice slammed into an embankment before coming to a stop. He suffered extensive injuries, including various wounds above the neck that required 800 stitches to mend.
Prosecuting Attorney Randy Gaylord acknowledges the hurdles are high to get beyond the state standard particularly in juvenile cases. Though he won’t “quarrel” over the sentence, Gaylord believes that Meyer would have been justified in going beyond the norm give circumstances of the fatal collision.
“We believe the boy in his conduct showed an extreme indifference to the safety of others by driving at such a high rate of speed,” he said. “We also believe that the victims in this case were particularly vulnerable. It was almost like a hostage situation for passenger.”
Restitution will be determined at a hearing slated for July.
