Gig Harbor man charged in fatal crash on Purdy Spit

Pierce County prosecutors on Wednesday charged a Gig Harbor man with vehicular homicide for a September crash that killed a motorcyclist on Purdy Spit.

Joshua Cunningham, 40, is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 16.

Cunningham had been drinking when he left a bonfire about 10:40 p.m. Sept. 11 and got behind the wheel of his SUV, which was parked on the east side of state Route 302, according to the Washington State Patrol.

He tried to make a U-turn but didn’t turn on the SUV’s headlights, according to charging papers. By the time James Jagger saw the SUV and tried to hit the brakes on his motorcycle, it was too late.

The motorcycle slammed into the driver’s side door of Cunningham’s SUV and Jagger was thrown from the bike.

He suffered a broken pelvis and broken femur. He died of his injuries three days later at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Cunningham appeared drunk and “uneasy on his feet,” troopers wrote in their report. Blood tests showed Cunningham had alcohol and THC, an ingredient in marijuana, in his system.

Jagger, 56, of Bremerton, had two sons. He ran Jagger Homes, a company that builds houses in Kitsap County.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 11:05 AM with the headline "Gig Harbor man charged in fatal crash on Purdy Spit."