Records: Driver who caused fatal crash was too high to realize he’d been in collision
A man who caused a fatal crash in South Hill on Sunday appeared to be so high that he didn’t realize he’d been in a collision, court records say.
On Monday, Pierce County prosecutors charged Pierce Pearson, 31, with vehicular homicide in the death of 31-year-old Nina Fournier. He pleaded not guilty at arraignment, and Superior Court Judge Thomas Patrick Quinlan Jr. set bail at $500,000.
The collision took place just after 11 a.m. Sunday near Canyon Road East and 128th Street East.
When deputies arrived on scene, they found Pearson inside a Hyundai sedan that had flipped onto its roof. He suffered serious injuries.
Fournier, a mother of two, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Charging papers give this account:
Witnesses said they spotted Pearson’s sedan speeding west down 128th Street East just before the crash and swerving into oncoming traffic as he passed other vehicles.
He was traveling close to 100 mph when his car struck Fournier’s SUV, then went up and over the SUV before landing upside down on the road, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
When a deputy asked Pearson how the collision happened, he allegedly responded, “What collision?”
He told deputies he’d recently gotten out of prison and was going to meet his brother, records say.
Pearson “said he was going to prove he was God and had been driving since yesterday,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers. “(Defendant) told me he had pressed on the gas pedal yesterday and got the vehicle up to 5,000 RPM and hadn’t stopped since.”
Investigators noted he was jittery, couldn’t stand still and his pupils did not react to light.
After being taken to the hospital, Pearson allegedly made several nonsensical comments and told a nurse he’d used heroin the night before to fall asleep.
Results from a toxicology test are pending.
This story was originally published March 8, 2021 at 11:09 AM.
