Man sentenced for crash over cliff near Carbonado that killed passenger
A 21-year-old man was sentenced Thursday for a crash that killed his passenger after his truck went over a 300-foot cliff near Carbonado last year.
Allen Darcy Jones pleaded guilty to felony driving under the influence and vehicular homicide for the death of 24-year-old Sullivan Black.
Superior Court Judge Diana Kiesel gave Jones a high-end sentence of two years, three months, which is what the attorneys recommended.
Jones’ plea statement said he was driving too fast for the conditions and that he drank some alcohol that night.
Charging papers said the two met at a bonfire June 26, 2020, and Black asked Jones if they could go for a ride on the forest service roads in his truck.
They were on their way back to the bonfire when Jones lost control of the truck on the curve of a gravel road. The vehicle went over the cliff and rolled about 10 times before it stopped against a stump.
Black wasn’t conscious. Jones found a way to climb back up to the road, and he ran to get help.
A team of emergency workers reached Black and got him out of the truck. He died later at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Deputies noted that Jones smelled like alcohol, and he said he’d had four beers.
“A bonfire out in the hinterlands of Pierce County turned bad,” deputy prosecutor Tim Jones told the court Thursday.
He said Jones was cooperative from the start, and that he had no prior criminal history.
Defense attorney Mark Treyz told the court his client “has been torn apart by what he did. ... that guilt is going to be with him for a long, long time.”
Loved ones wrote letters to the court that described Jones as a hard worker and a dependable caretaker for his grandparents. They said he’s quiet, kind, treats his dog like a child and always seems to be doing work on someone’s car.
Before she handed down the sentence, Kiesel told the 21-year-old she agreed with Treyz: “This is going to be with you for probably the rest of your life.”
Just as Black’s family will have to live without him for the rest of theirs, she said.
