Family upset with Tacoma police response into DUI wreck that led to mother’s death
With his mother in her 80s, John Robinson says he knew he was going to lose her at some point. He just didn’t know it would be Christmas night. Or because of a drunk driver.
Robinson’s mother, Merion Jean Jones, 81, died three days after a two-car collision on Christmas Day in Tacoma. Robinson was driving north on Yakima Avenue in a Nissan Maxima with his mother when they were struck by another driver while turning left at the 84th Street intersection.
According to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office, Jones’ cause of death was multiple blunt-force injuries.
After Jones’ death, her children, Robinson, 62, and Lenita Dixon, 63, found themselves working through feelings of anger, grief and frustration. It also left them with questions about the investigation into the collision and the man accused of causing it. Robinson wondered if the other driver had been over-served at a nearby establishment. Dixon said she felt the investigation wasn’t taken as seriously as it should have been.
Robinson didn’t understand why a Tacoma Police Department officer wrote in a report that the collision “appeared to be minor” when it happened, and that the vehicles involved weren’t damaged enough to raise immediate concern for life-threatening or serious injuries. The report states that was why a police traffic call-out wasn’t initiated, which, according to a police spokesperson, would have deployed a traffic-fatality team with specific training related to investigating the scenes of fatal wrecks.
Robinson is a police patrol sergeant for the Department of Veteran Affairs. He questioned why the other driver wasn’t held in jail on vehicular-assault charges.
A spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Adam Faber, didn’t speak to the specifics of this case, but he said it’s common in DUI cases for prosecutors to wait for toxicology results to come back before a decision to file charges is made. People are often hurt in traffic incidents, and for it to be considered criminal, investigators would need to be able to prove the driver was impaired by drugs or alcohol or prove the suspect was driving with disregard for the safety of others.
The 37-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of DUI and then taken to a hospital to have his blood drawn. According to court documents, his blood-alcohol content was more than triple the legal limit of 0.08 when it was drawn two hours after the crash. He was booked into the county jail and later released.
The man was charged in February with DUI vehicular homicide in Superior Court, and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. He’s expected to appear for an arraignment to enter a plea in the case March 10.
“If this person was as drunk as they said he was, then it should have been heavier charges initially, and he really should not be on the street right now,” Dixon said.
The News Tribune posed Robinson and Dixon’s questions about why the wreck was initially considered minor and the man’s booking charges to a police spokesperson, officer Shelbie Boyd, on Wednesday. She said she would forward them to a sergeant on the traffic-fatality team to see if they could provide further information. Boyd did not provide a response as of Thursday afternoon.
‘I’m here Mom’
When the wreck occurred, Robinson was driving his mother home after a Christmas dinner at his home in Puyallup. Robinson had family in town from Australia, and they had plans to begin a road trip the next day that would take them to Disneyland, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.
The two were chatting while they waited for the light to turn green at 84th Street. When they began to turn left, Robinson said out of nowhere he felt the impact — “Just, pow,” Robinson said, — and the vehicle spun. Air bags deployed, and when the car came to a stop, Robinson said the vehicle was smoking, and he felt dizzy.
Jones was unconscious, and Robinson said he heard a gurgling sound in her chest. He called 911. The Tacoma Fire Department arrived and got them out of the car. When Jones was put on a gurney, Robinson said she became conscious for a moment while a fire official tried to ask her questions.
“And then she finally looked at me and she said, ‘Johnny?’ And I said, ‘I’m here Mom,’” Robinson said. “And I just knelt down and kissed her on her head, said, ‘I’m here Mom.’ And she lost consciousness.”
Robinson called his sister, Dixon, who lived just blocks away. At the scene, she and Robinson got the impression that the incident was a hit and run. Dixon posted on social media asking if anyone in the area had information about the other vehicle, a Jeep Gladiator. It wasn’t until Dixon was contacted by a detective two days after the wreck that she learned the other driver had been arrested at the scene.
Dixon said it was a relief that police knew who the other driver was. Both she and Robinson expressed frustration over the Police Department’s communication with them about the incident.
“I don’t want to be too openly critical of them because I’m in law enforcement, too, and I know we make mistakes and that no one is perfect,” Robinson said. “But I would have liked to have known that the man was there instead of thinking he left. Just explain things to us.”
‘He robbed our family of the last moments ...’
Jones’ children said she was a tough woman with a heart of gold. Robinson said he wanted the man who caused the collision to know what a wonderful woman his mother was.
“He robbed our family of the last moments we really could have had with her,” Robinson said.
Jones was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and she moved to the Pacific Northwest with her mother after living in Wyoming for a time, according to Robinson. She attended Garfield High School in Seattle. Jones was married a couple times, Robinson said, but she raised her two children on her own.
Dixon remembers her mother working as a cashier for Safeway. Robinson said there were times when they struggled financially, but he and his sister would have never known because of how protective Jones was of them.
“She was devoted. Her kids came first,” Robinson said. “She could be strict because she was being both mother and father. So it was difficult for her, raising two children on her own.”
Jones was especially known for her cooking and baking. Robinson said her rum cake was legendary. At Christmastime, she often made mini versions to give as gifts. Dixon said she cooked with her mother a lot, trying new recipes or preparing holiday meals. She said she’s tried to maintain some of Jones’ recipes.
“She loved to make gumbo,” Dixon said. “She thought she made the best gumbo. I think I do.”
Jones was also active in her church, Paradise Missionary Baptist Church in Seattle. Later in life, after her husband, Jesse Jones Sr., died, Robinson said Jones sold her house in Seattle, and she lived in a retirement community for a time before moving in with Dixon in Tacoma.
Dixon said she didn’t really know how to process what had happened in the days after her mother’s death. She and Robinson said their family hadn’t ever experienced something like that. Dixon said she went numb from it.
Dixon said nothing would bring her mother back, and it wasn’t lost on her that the man charged in the wreck will have to live with the fact that bad decision-making led to someone’s life being taken, but Dixon said Jones didn’t deserve that, and actions have consequences.
“What I want is for the punishment to be severe and public and open so that people can understand that you can’t just get behind a wheel and be drunk and just take someone out,” Dixon said. “Regardless of their age or their lot in life.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
