He drove drunk in Tacoma, killing 2 in wrong-way wreck on I-705. Here’s his sentence
A 38-year-old man who drove the wrong way on an Interstate 705 on-ramp near downtown Tacoma and crashed head-on into another vehicle, killing two people, was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.
Gregory Rynth Steele pleaded guilty Feb. 21 to two counts of DUI vehicular homicide in the April 2, 2023, collision. According to court records, Steele was driving south in the northbound lanes of Interstate 705 in a Ford F-150 with a woman in the passenger seat when he crashed into a Honda Accord occupied by three people.
The incident occurred on a northbound ramp from Interstate 5 to Interstate 705.
The two front-seat passengers, Levi Moser, 20, and Benjamin Metzger, 17, were killed in the wreck. A 15-year-old girl in the backseat was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center to be treated for her injuries.
Steele’s blood alcohol content was 0.14 within two hours of the incident, according to court records. He and his passenger, a 27-year-old Port Orchard woman, were also injured in the collision. She wrote in a letter to the court that she underwent surgery for a broken arm, and she suffered a broken hand, a broken rib and fractures in her back.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Matthew Thomas handed Steele a sentence at the high end of the standard sentencing range for defendants prosecuted in similar cases, 95 to 125 months. Prosecutors had recommended Steele receive a low-end sentence. He has one prior felony conviction from 2006 for second-degree theft in Kitsap County.
Friends and relatives who submitted victim impact statements to the court described Moser as a bright young man who was kind and loving. His stepfather wrote that the young man had been considering a career in the United States Air Force before his death.
“I just cannot put into words how overwhelmingly grief stricken this family is over all of this,” the stepfather wrote. “Our lives have been changed forever, and we can only hope and pray that we can find our way forward to heal and recover, whatever that can even look like.”
Washington State Patrol troopers were dispatched to the wreck at about 12:44 a.m. According to court records, arriving troopers saw two people standing on the left shoulder and another screaming and walking in traffic lanes. She had glass on her with small cuts to her head and face, and troopers escorted her out of the road.
Both of the Honda’s front-seat passengers were found unresponsive. The car was facing north with significant front-end damage. The pickup that struck the vehicle was facing the opposite direction in the same lane. Steele was conscious in the driver’s seat, and his airbag had deployed.
Steele was living at an address in Gig Harbor at the time of the wreck, according to court records, and he owned a computer repair shop in Port Orchard. While in custody, he successfully completed a substance-use disorder treatment program.
