The Tacoma wreck killed 2 of his friends and injured a 3rd. Now he’s been sentenced

Dennis Mouth was sentenced Tuesday for the Tacoma wreck that killed two of his friends and seriously injured another.

“Granted, he didn’t mean for this to happen, but this was no accident,” deputy prosecutor Tim Jones told the Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend.

Arend gave Mouth a low-end sentence of 12 years, two months in prison — a few years below what Jones recommended.

He said Mouth’s blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit at the time of the crash that killed 25-year-old Vuthy Khim of Tacoma and 19-year-old Elias J. Solis of Roslyn.

Solis’ family told the court that he considered stepfather Robert Mathes his dad and used his surname.

Mathes told the court that he’d lost “my only son, my partner, my right hand man,” who was known as “Bubba.”

Charging papers say Mouth left a house party with his friends Feb. 27, 2016, and was driving them north on Interstate 5. When Mouth suddenly tried to take the Port of Tacoma exit, he crashed into a utility pole.

“Four young men made some wrong decisions,” Mathes said. “I just don’t understand why my son had to die because of the poor decisions you all made.”

He said he knows the wreck has been hard for Mouth’s family as well.

Outside court, Mathes said his son was a great person, who liked playing sports and making music with his friends.

No one addressed Arend on Khim’s behalf.

Mouth told the court that he understood the severity of his actions and apologized for them.

He lost two close friends whom he loved, he said, and he told the injured friend, who attended the sentencing: “I love you, man. I’m sorry for causing you harm.”

Mouth suffered serious injuries in the wreck and was on a breathing machine in the hospital following it.

Investigators weren’t able to find him after he was released to home care, but he was arrested in Auburn last year after they got an anonymous tip.

“Poor judgment, poor choices,” defense attorney Karl Williams told Arend about the wreck.

Williams said his client is remorseful and that he suffers from substance-abuse disorder and a personality disorder that lends itself to impetuousness.

Arend made treatment for those things part of his sentence.

This story was originally published August 14, 2018 at 5:20 PM.