PORT ANGELES — A former Forks resident who intentionally veered into an oncoming traffic lane in 2015, seriously injuring a La Push motorist, was sentenced last week to six months in jail.
Cheryl Lynn Holcomb, 59, of College Place, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Clallam County Superior Court to vehicular assault under an Alford Plea, which means she does not admit guilt but acknowledges she likely would be found guilty if her case went to trial.
“The parties stipulate that mental illness contributed to the offense,” according to the felony judgment and sentence order agreed to at a hearing presided over by Judge Brian Coughenour.
Holcomb also will serve 12 months of community custody, undergo a mental health evaluation and pay restitution to crash victim Nicole Realing, 43.
Realing said Friday that more than three years later, she endures the consequences of the broken pelvis and spinal injuries she suffered in the 8 a.m. Oct. 30, 2015 crash on state Highway 110 on Ocean View Drive in La Push.
Realing can’t stand or sit for any length of time, much less walk up stairs without wincing, and can no longer go fishing or hunt for mushrooms with her husband, Carl, who was in the car with her but survived without serious injury.
“We were inseparable,” Realing said. “You sit there and try to figure it out. What am I supposed to do?
“You’re always in pain.”
Realing was driving eastbound on 110 on her way to work at the Long Cedar shingle mill with her husband when Holcomb crossed the center line coming from the opposite direction.
Holcomb collided with the Realings’ Ford Explorer SUV.
“By the time I went around the corner, that’s when I saw her in my lane, and said oh s—-,” Realing said.
“That’s when she hit me directly on the driver’s side.”
The Explorer rolled into the eastbound ditch, trapping the Realings in their vehicle, according to Holcomb’s probable cause statement.
Nicole Realing said her driver’s seat was pushed into the back seat, her husband pinned near her. She could barely breathe.
“He did not know if I was dead or alive,” she said. “He kept saying, get the door open. He yelled my name a dozen times.”
It took two hours for emergency personnel wielding extraction tools to get them out, she said.
Carl Realing, 58, was treated at Forks Community Hospital and discharged later that day.
Nicole Realing was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center with a shattered pelvis, which had detached from her spine, she said.
Holcomb also was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center with possible back injuries, according to the probable cause statement. Further information on her injuries was unavailable Friday.
Four of Realing’s ribs were broken and a lung was punctured.
After many surgeries, an upcoming operation will include re-breaking her pelvis to correctly align her spine “and put it the way it should be,” Realing said.
“The inside joke is, I’m like Humpty Dumpty.”
While emergency personnel took Holcomb to Forks Community Hospital for air transport, she “made statements regarding her intentional act of trying to end her own life,” according to the probable cause statement.
Two weeks later, in a recorded interview with a State Patrol detective and while still at the hospital, Holcomb said “she was thinking about ending her life for the last two weeks leading up to the collision,” according to the statement.
Holcomb’s trial dates were set for May 8, Aug. 14, and Nov. 6, 2017; and Jan. 29, May 21, July 16 and Nov. 5, 2018 before Holcomb pleaded guilty Nov. 7, 2018.
Holcomb did not have a criminal history or a history of use of, abuse of, or dependency on drugs, alcohol or tobacco, according to court documents.
The six months she was sentenced to was the midpoint of the standard sentence range of three months to nine months. She will serve the time in the Clallam County jail.
Psychologist Michael McBride of Sequim recommended in a Dec. 28 evaluation report that “traditional sentencing options would have an adverse effect on Cheryl’s bipolar depression exacerbating symptoms; and would likely initiate additional episodes of suicidal ideation.”
McBride said electronic home monitoring and/or work release would be reasonable alternative sanctions.
Holcomb’s father died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a car when she was 4, three male father figures died, her son died in a skiing accident and she had a mastectomy due to cancer, McBride said, adding that she had been sexually abused.
Holcomb was hospitalized with mental health-suicidal ideation episodes between 2013 and 2014 after her son died and after the Oct. 30, 2015 mishap, McBride said.
“Her adult years have been characterized by many years of diagnosis and treatment including the use of powerful psychotropic medications,” McBride said.
An Eastern Washington University graduate with skills in accounting, Holcomb was working for the Quileute Tribe at the time of the collision, having just moved from Spokane, where her psychiatrist lived.
McBride said that when Holcomb moved to La Push, she had samples of a new medication, the anti-psychotic drug Latuda, which she took for the first time four days before the collision.
“I have no doubt that she thought and ruminated about suicide and how she might do it,” McBride said.
“There also had been thoughts about running into another vehicle.
“However, I do not believe she had the cognitive capacity to make a rational decision to veer into the oncoming traffic to end her life.”
She was not under suicide watch at the jail as of Friday.
The Realings moved to Spokane in 2016, a year after the crash.
Nicole Realing cannot work and enjoys being with her dogs, while her husband works as a mechanic.
She said Friday she forgives Holcomb.
At the same time, she said she believes that when Holcomb veered into her lane, changing her life forever for the worse, it was her choice.
During her victim impact statement Wednesday, Realing said she directly addressed Holcomb.
“She’s frail, she’s a frail woman,” Realing recalled.
“It was hard, but I felt that I needed to let her know what she had done to me, what she had taken away from me.”
She told Holcomb, “Of all the people I know, you know what it feels like to have someone taken away from you.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@ peninsuladailynews.com.