Woman charged with vehicular homicide in Buckley DUI car crash that killed passenger
A 28-year-old woman accused of crashing a stolen car last year in Buckley and killing a passenger had methamphetamine in her blood, according to criminal charges filed Tuesday.
Brittany McClain was charged in Pierce County Superior Court with vehicular homicide. She is to be arraigned Nov. 1. Court records show McClain does not have a criminal history in Pierce County beyond a nonviolent drug charge from 2012.
According to charging documents, McClain was driving east on state Route 410 into Buckley just after midnight on June 10, 2021, when she lost control of the car at an intersection and crashed into a pole for a crosswalk, causing the vehicle to roll onto its roof.
Michael Vernon Woody, 26, was killed in the crash. Records say Woody was unconscious and bleeding when Buckley police arrived at the scene. Woody was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, where he was pronounced dead. According to an obituary for Woody, he was a father to a 2-year-old boy.
McClain was also injured and taken to an area hospital. According to the probable cause document, her blood was drawn, and a toxicology report returned in June showing she had 0.74 mg/L of methamphetamine in her system.
A Buckley police officer witnessed the crash and was at the scene within seconds, records state. He reported seeing the two-door Honda sedan McClain was allegedly driving going the speed limit on the highway behind a pickup truck. According to the probable cause document, both vehicles “accelerated rapidly” in the 29200 block of state Route 410, and the Honda lost control and crashed where the highway intersects with state Route 165 going into the city.
McClain crawled out of the vehicle. While she was checked for injuries, she allegedly told police she was in the backseat, and that the driver had fled the scene. Records state that a witness had video of the crash which did not show anyone fleeing the scene. Officers also used a police dog to search the area, but no one was found.
The vehicle McClain was allegedly driving was reported stolen out of Kent, according to the probable cause document.
While discussing the incident with officers at the scene, McClain reportedly told officers that she hadn’t used meth in a month, but that the people in the car they were behind and the victim had used the drug earlier in the day. Inside the car, police reported seeing a bong and other drug paraphernalia.
