PORT ANGELES — A man charged with vehicular homicide in the death of a First Nations man from British Columbia has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in July.
Steven W. Boyd, 49, of Port Angeles pleaded guilty Wednesday to alcohol-related vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault in connection with an early morning Aug. 25 collision that killed Ahousaht First Nation member Darrell Campbell, 49, of Ahousat, B.C., and seriously injured Campbell’s brother and niece.
Superior Court Judge Ken Williams set sentencing for 1 p.m. July 23 but denied Boyd’s request for a furlough.
Boyd wanted to spend time “getting his affairs in order” and visiting with his father, who has terminal cancer and is not expected to survive the approximately five-year prison term Boyd probably will receive, said Alex Stalker of Clallam Public Defender, who represents Boyd.
Boyd’s father was in the courtroom Wednesday.
In January, Boyd said he was considering accepting a plea offer that would have resulted in a five-year prison sentence but he changed his mind in February.
About 30 relatives of Darrell Campbell, his brother Angus Campbell, 57, who still walks with the aid of a cane, and niece Sophie Campbell, 18, who also was seriously injured, attended the hearing.
The morning of the wreck, which occurred on state Highway 112 near Place Road at about 8 a.m. that day in August, the family group was traveling to Neah Bay to attend the Makah Days festival.
The State Patrol said Boyd had a 0.12 percent blood-alcohol level from a blood sample taken 95 minutes after the wreck and a 0.079 percent level about two hours after the wreck.
The legal limit in Washington is 0.08 percent.
Family members are expected to speak at the sentencing, said Pat Johns of Neah Bay, who said he spoke for the Campbell family.
Family members were relieved that “the back and forth, back and forth” of the case was over, Johns said.
“Now that [Boyd] takes responsibility and pled guilty to [counts] one, two and three, this is closure to our family,” Johns said.
Johns said Campbell and Boyd family members had spoken since the wreck occurred.
Jerre Boyd, Steven Boyd’s father, patted Johns on the shoulder as members of both families filed out of the courtroom after Steven Boyd’s guilty plea.
Jerre Boyd would not comment on the case.
“I’m doing as good as I can, and that’s about it,” he said.
Johns said he and other family members probably would go to the crash site later Wednesday and “say a prayer-song for our loved one.”
Stalker said in January that he would challenge the blood-alcohol tests and that a new witness had come forward to testify.
According to the State Patrol report, a log-truck driver traveling on Highway 112 the morning of the collision said the sun was “extremely bright” at the time of the wreck.
“Mr. Boyd never really wanted to go through a trial and put everyone through that,” Stalker said after Wednesday’s hearing.
“That’s the nature of the case,” he said.
“They continually evolve.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
