A Hoquiam man has pleaded guilty to two counts associated with the Jan. 14 hit-and-run death of 71-year-old Jeri Stiles in Aberdeen.
Zachary Ryan Youngblood, age 23 at the time of the Jan. 14 incident, pleaded guilty to felony hit-and-run and making a false or misleading statement to a public servant and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Court documents say Youngblood dropped his girlfriend off at Grays Harbor College the morning of Jan. 14, and drove into downtown Aberdeen in his girlfriend’s pickup. He stopped at the intersection of First and G streets and was attempting to turn right, east onto First.
Stiles had been dropped off by her son on First Street a block or two east of the intersection. She crossed First Street, proceeded to the intersection of First and G and began to cross the street in front of Youngblood, from his right.
Youngblood entered the intersection, running over Stiles, according to a statement to the court from Grays Harbor County Prosecutor Katie Svoboda. “The defendant proceeded slowly away on First Street, pulled into the parking lot of the old Bridges Restaurant, slowly turned around, lingered for a moment, then drove away, continuing east on First.”
Svoboda continued, “Later that evening, the defendant and his girlfriend went to Ocean Shores and got matching Mickey Mouse tattoos.”
Witnesses who tended to Stiles at the scene provided a description of the pickup, and officers were able to locate it and arrest Youngblood that evening. Svoboda said Youngblood initially “lied about knowing he had hit someone, claiming mechanical difficulties with the vehicle that were later disproved by a mechanical inspection.”
When investigators pointed out the holes in his story, Youngblood eventually confessed, said Svoboda.
“When the defendant confessed, the whole story came out,” wrote Svoboda. “The defendant expressed remorse and apologized for lying,” claiming that post traumatic stress disorder contributed to his offense.
Svoboda wrote, “Here, the crime is the running, not the hitting. But the defendant’s continuing course of conduct in this matter after the initial running made it so the state could not offer a mitigated sentence. The defendant’s conduct here does not call for the bottom of the range.” The sentence range for felony hit-and-run is 31-41 months.
In his written statement to the court, Youngblood wrote only the details of his actions related to the crimes he pleaded guilty to.
Stiles’ son provided a victim impact statement, beginning with, “Since the morning my mother was killed by Zachary Youngblood, I have suffered from nightmares, insomnia and anger issues.”
He continued, “I literally had just dropped my mother off on First Street so she could catch a bus (at the) Aberdeen Transit Mall.” He arrived at his place of employment nearby and had just entered when he heard sirens coming from the scene. At 8:20 a.m., he got a call from the hospital saying his mother had been injured.
“I was able to be with her as she passed, however, since that day I have been numb and am still numb most of the time,” he wrote.
Stiles’ son expressed disappointment with the plea arrangement.
“I also believe letting Mr. Youngblood plead guilty to felony hit and run is like pouring salt on an already painful and open wound,” he wrote. “The amount of months Youngblood will serve as told to me on the phone by the Prosecutor’s Office is a slap in the face to myself, my family and to my mother’s memory.”
In Svoboda’s statement prior to sentencing, she wrote, “Although the defendant was originally arrested for vehicular homicide and manslaughter 2nd Degree, after a review of the facts the State did not believe that the defendant’s negligence rose to the higher standard of criminal liability for the hitting. The defendant will probably face a significant civil liability.”
