Minivan driver sentenced for Tacoma wreck that killed motorcyclist who worked at Boeing
A minivan driver who hit and killed a motorcyclist while driving drunk in Tacoma last year was sentenced Friday.
Theresa Lynn Ruffner, 62, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide for the death of 24-year-old Caire Cotton. She also pleaded guilty to vehicular assault for injuries suffered by someone else in the crash.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Kathryn Nelson sentenced Ruffner to seven years, 11 months in prison.
Charging papers said Ruffner hit Cotton Aug. 3 as he and his disabled 2005 Suzuki motorcycle were in a gore point on southbound Interstate 5 near the merge with Interstate 705. Then a Ford Focus rear-ended Ruffner’s minivan. A passenger in the Focus suffered a fractured sternum.
The result of Ruffner’s preliminary breath test was 0.2, above the legal limit of 0.08.
Her friends wrote the court on her behalf ahead of sentencing, describing her as a hard worker who took care of her family. They said that she is remorseful for her actions.
Many of Cotton’s loved ones also wrote the court to say that Cotton was a good father, hilariously funny, loving and hard-working.
Cotton’s girlfriend wrote, “Many people called him their best friend, but in our household he was ‘daddy,’ a fun, loving, hardworking parent who always put his family first and did whatever it takes to ensure we were well taken care of. ... What started as a normal Saturday for us where daddy went to work for overtime and we stayed home impatiently waiting for him turned into the worst day of our lives.”
She had to move after the wreck, she wrote, because the kids — 5 and 2 — were still waiting for him to come home.
A co-worker and friend of Cotton, Anthony Brown, wrote the court about how excited he and Cotton had been to be building planes for Boeing.
They talked about what they’d do with their wages, including setting up funds for their children.
The last time they saw each other Cotton had gotten to work early and worked especially hard, in order to be allowed to leave early for a comedy show he’d been looking forward to. They said they’d see each other Monday.
Then he heard Cotton had been in an accident.
The Boeing crew shared tears and stories about Cotton in the days that followed.
“Why did someone’s very poor decision have to take away a great man from his family and two young children who now have to grow up only having stories of their father’s memories instead of being able to make new memories with him on a daily basis?” Brown wrote.
He told the court he hugs his own child extra tight now when he says goodbye and gets on the case of anyone he sees trying to drink and drive.
