I-5 hit-and-run driver on drugs, texting when he caused crash that killed 3, records show

The Lakewood man suspected of killing three people in a hit-and-run collision on Interstate 5 was high on marijuana and Xanax and was texting his girlfriend when he struck the other car, records show.

Pierce County prosecutors on Friday charged Montrell Red, 23, with three counts of vehicular homicide and failure to remain at an accident resulting in death.

He pleaded not guilty at arraignment, and Superior Court Commissioner Meagan Foley set his bail at $750,000.

More charges may be filed later for the amount of marijuana and the gun found in his car, as well as injuries sustained by others involved in the ensuing crashes.

Red was arrested early Thursday after allegedly running into an SUV on I-5, causing it to hit the jersey barrier and roll.

Killed in the crash were the driver, Jaime Pelayo Pelayo, 30; passenger Sherry Rodriguez, 44, and an unidentified 51-year-old Longview man.

Pelayo Pelayo and Rodriguez were both from Kelso.

Red’s father, Ray Washington, told reporters outside court Friday that his son has to face what he did.

“I just want to apologize to the families of the victims,” said Washington, who traveled from Florida when he heard about the wreck.

“My son is a great kid, he is. He just chose the wrong path. I love him to death.”

Charging papers give this account:

Red was driving his girlfriend’s Nissan Maxima when he got on southbound I-5 at Bridgeport Way early Thursday.

He tried to go around a slower car, lost control, crossed all lanes and struck a 1999 Honda CRV. The Honda hit the concrete jersey barrier, “rode up onto the top of the center barrier” and hit the bridge support column near the New York Avenue overpass before landing upside down on I-5, records show.

The Honda’s engine compartment and other debris were thrown into the northbound lanes and struck by another vehicle.

Pelayo Pelayo, Rodriguez and the other passenger were pronounced dead at the scene.

Red’s Nissan also hit the center barrier but he continued driving south without checking on the people in the car he hit, troopers said.

A Seattle dispatcher drove by the wreckage, spotted the badly damaged Nissan a few hundred feet away and followed it so she could direct troopers to the hit-and-run driver.

She later told investigators Red tried to elude her but she managed to keep him in sight while calling 911.

Two troopers found Red next to the Nissan, which he’d parked in the middle of Lake Street SW to try to pull off the damaged bumper that had been dragging behind the car.

The Nissan also had at least one flat tire and damage to the front end.

When troopers told Red he’d been in an accident that killed three people, he allegedly said “I didn’t mean to.”

A pink handgun, marijuana and Xanax were found on Red or in his girlfriend’s car.

He allegedly admitted to taking Xanax and smoking marijuana several times that day. Toxicology tests are pending.

Red’s girlfriend was sending him increasingly angry texts about why he wasn’t home and he was looking at one of those texts when he tried to go left around a slower vehicle and lost control, records show.

“The defendant explained that after the collision he just wanted to get the car back to his girlfriend so it would not get towed,” according to charging papers. “He admitted that the right thing to do would have been to check on the people in the other car.”

Also injured in the incident was a DuPont police officer who responded to the scene and had his patrol car struck by a semi. The officer suffered minor injuries; the patrol car was destroyed.

This story was originally published March 9, 2018 at 10:47 AM with the headline "I-5 hit-and-run driver on drugs, texting when he caused crash that killed 3, records show."