20-year-old sentenced for leaving scene of accident that killed Spanaway pedestrian
A 20-year-old man who hit and killed a pedestrian while driving in Spanaway in 2019 was sentenced Friday.
Bailey Weston Losey pleaded guilty to failing to remain at the scene of the accident that killed 40-year-old Ariel Vazquez Lopez.
Superior Court Judge Susan Adams sentenced Losey to 90 days in jail as a first-time offender and six months of community custody, which is what the defense and prosecution recommended.
Charging papers said Lopez was hit while walking in the 1400 block of 152nd Street East. Someone found him in the street Jan. 15, 2019, called 911, and he later died at Tacoma General Hospital.
Investigators asked the public for information about the hit-and-run.
They learned Losey’s girlfriend told people they’d been in an accident and “returned to the area but did not see anything,” the declaration for determination of probable cause said. “They later both learned through social media that someone died in the same area and at the same time they had hit something.”
Deputy prosecutor Tim Jones told the court the accident happened in a dark, residential area. There was no indication that excessive speed, drugs or alcohol were involved, he said.
A person covered Lopez with a blanket, gave him aid and stayed with him until emergency personnel arrived, Jones said.
Lopez’s sister joined the sentencing hearing by phone from Mexico.
“Her brother didn’t die alone,” Jones said.
The woman told the court that Lopez’s death has affected her family emotionally and economically. Her aging parents, she said, have not been able to recover from the loss.
Defense attorney Michael Stewart told the court his client didn’t know what happened at the time of the crash.
The attorney said the collision was not foreseeable or avoidable, and that Losey and his girlfriend were scared.
“If Bailey would have stopped immediately, he would have seen what happened,” Stewart said.
Coaches, teachers, teammates and family members wrote the court about Losey’s character, including his work as a camp counselor with children living with diabetes.
When it was Losey’s turn to address the court, he was emotional as he apologized and said that he would never intentionally hurt someone.
Before she handed down the sentence, Judge Adams said: “You are a very young man who found himself in a scary situation” and made a wrong decision.
She told Losey she believes he’ll carry that far longer than his sentence.
