Teen charged in University Place wreck that killed woman was driving 101 mph, records say
A woman struck by a speeding teenager and left dead on a University Place street when he and his friends fled was scared of driving.
Marchalakia “Merci” Johnson, 19, was a cautious driver, an understanding woman and a giving soul, her loved ones said.
When she was killed Dec. 20, she was driving home from a late shift at Burger King, where she’d started working three years before to help support her mother and five siblings when the family moved from Ohio and soon found themselves homeless.
“To know her was to love her,” said Johnson’s mother, Carmen Adams. “She was the type of person who tried to help everybody and anybody. She always strived to be the best person she could be and uplift other people.”
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While in high school, Johnson became involved with building tiny houses and it became an all-consuming passion. She shunned sports and normal teenage activities so she could focus all her time on helping build homes. She loved it so much that she planned a career in building code or construction.
“She wanted to prevent other mothers who found themselves in need of a safe shelter so they would not go without,” Adams said.
Johnson was also an honor roll student and graduated at the top of her class at Mount Tahoma High School.
Pierce County prosecutors have charged Diego Alexandro Guitron, 17, with vehicular homicide and failure to remain at the scene of an accident causing death. He is not in custody and has not yet been arraigned.
Charging papers give this account of the collision:
On Dec. 20, Pierce County sheriff’s deputies were called about 1 a.m. to the 6800 block of 35th Street West in University Place for an apparent collision.
They found a badly smashed Mazda 3 with the driver, later identified as Johnson, unconscious and trapped inside. She was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, where she was pronounced dead.
Deputies also found a Cadillac STS about a block away with nobody inside. There was a single black shoe on the driver’s floorboard, as well as a beer bottle and Gatorade bottle.
Investigators believe Johnson was traveling west when Guitron, who was driving east, crossed into her lane and struck her car head-on.
The Mazda left the roadway and stopped. The Cadillac continued on, hitting two curbs before stopping a block east of the crash scene.
At least two people who live in the neighborhood heard the crash and saw the aftermath.
One person described the collision sounds as “vehicles racing and then it went bad,” records say. He said he saw a truck with four people inside stop at Guitron’s car, then heard someone yell, “I think she’s dead, we’ve got to get out of here!”
Another vehicle with two to three people inside was also seen speeding away from the scene.
Deputies tracked down the Cadillac’s owner, who said her son was being treated for injuries at Tacoma General Hospital. A black shoe matching the one found in the Cadillac was discovered in the teen’s hospital room.
Guitron told deputies he left a friend’s apartment in University Place and got in a wreck, but couldn’t remember where.
He said “he remembered hitting a car, and that he’d been wearing his seat belt and thought he was going the speed limit,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
Data from the Cadillac shows Guitron was driving 101 mph two seconds before the collision and likely impacted Johnson’s vehicle at 85 mph.
The posted speed limit in that area is 25 mph.
Friends drove Guitron to the hospital. He was treated for an injury sustained from the seat belt when the airbag deployed.
Nobody else has been charged in the fatal crash, which Johnson’s mother said troubles her. She believes Guitron’s friends should also face charges for abandoning her daughter after the crash and not calling for help.
Adams plans to attend Guitron’s arraignment because she wants to look him in the eye.
“When he sees me, he will be seeing my daughter again,” she said.
Donations are being accepted for a foundation to start a tiny village in Johnson’s honor.
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
