‘You left me to die.’ Man sentenced for hit-and-run of utility worker on Key Peninsula
A 39-year-old man who drove drunk on the Key Peninsula last year and severely injured a woman working on the side of the road in a hit-and-run was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.
Michael Anthony Tisdale pleaded guilty to DUI vehicular assault and failure to remain at an injury accident in Pierce County Superior Court for the Sept. 16, 2023 incident. According to court records, Shawna Dailey was working on a power box that afternoon for telecommunications company CenturyLink when the defendant struck her and a set of mailboxes with a van.
At Tisdale’s sentencing hearing, the victim’s husband, Shannon Ridge, told Judge Grant Blinn that people walking their dog found Dailey face down hours after the collision occurred. She was knocked out of her work boots, he said, and nearly every bone in her body was broken.
“In all intents and purposes she was dead on that country road, and you left her there,” Ridge said, gesturing toward Tisdale.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Department deputies were dispatched at about 6 p.m. to the scene at 88th Avenue Northwest and Danforth Street, according to court documents. Key Peninsula Fire Department personnel were there providing aid to Dailey.
Tisdale was located a short time later at a residence about three blocks away. Records state there was a dent in the hood of his van and other damage to the grill. An open can of Bud Light was found in the vehicle’s center console.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Elizabeth Dasse said Friday that a blood draw measured Tisdale’s blood-alcohol content to be 0.30. The legal limit is 0.08. According to court records, the defendant has prior DUI convictions, from 2006 in Lakewood and 2008 from Kittitas County.
While Dailey was hospitalized, Ridge said, doctors told him and their three sons that she wasn’t expected to survive, and they were trying to keep her alive long enough so that one of their sons, a U.S. Marine, could make it home to see her at Harborview Medical Center. Ridge said his wife was on life support for four weeks.
“She wakes up weeks if not months later,” Ridge said. “And she’s a different person physically, mentally. It’s just terrible. And it’s not just a simple mistake. It’s mistake after mistake after mistake on the defendant’s part.”
Months later, Dailey had to return to the hospital for an emergency tracheotomy, and she has continued to need to undergo surgeries.
Victim addresses driver who struck her
Dailey, 52, entered the courtroom with her husband and the assistance of a walker to speak to the judge and the man who hit her. She recounted what she remembered from the incident, telling the judge how she had laid face down in the gravel and called out for help while cars passed by.
Her calls for help were blocked by her work truck, she said. Before she lost consciousness, she said she faintly saw two people and heard one cry out, “Somebody help her!”
“I blacked out. I died,” Dailey said. “That was the last thing I remember on Sept. 16, 2023.”
Dailey had worked for CenturyLink for 24 years before the incident and last worked as a cable maintenance technician. She said she had volunteered to work that Saturday afternoon to make money for Christmas. She’s since lost her job, and Dailey said she was sure she would never be able to work again.
“I was a badass,” Dailey said. “I repaired everything. I was the only female. Most men didn’t want to do my job. I worked high in the air, using ladders and a bucket truck.”
She gasped for breath at times while she spoke. Dailey said she now walks like she’s an 80-year-old woman, her breathing is three-quarters of what it was, she lives in chronic pain, and she struggles with her mental health.
If it was her choice, Dailey said, Tisdale would be sentenced to life in prison.
“This all could have been avoided if you had just called Uber,” she said. “ You left me to die.”
Defendant apologizes for driving drunk
After Dailey and her husband spoke, Tisdale’s defense attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Laura Carnell, told the court that Tisdale has felt horrible about the incident and had only ever wished the best for Dailey and her recovery.
Tisdale was visiting Pierce County from Mississippi at the time to help with his father, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, according to the defense attorney.
Carnell said the defendant accepted responsibility for his actions and agreed to a sentencing recommendation that was three times the high end of the standard sentencing range. According to court records, the standard range for defendants prosecuted in similar cases is 15 to 20 months in prison.
When it was Tisdale’s opportunity to speak, he said he wanted to apologize to the court, Dailey and her family. He said he comes from a small place where they care about each other, and he wouldn’t leave someone on the side of the road for hours.
“I was intoxicated. I knew I hit a truck. I didn’t know someone was around it. That’s all I got to say is, I apologize.”
Blinn told Tisdale that only luck separated vehicular assault from vehicular homicide.
“You had gotten lucky in that sense a number of times and you continued to gamble, and eventually it caught up with you,” Blinn said.
