Home detention for Pierce County driver who ran stop sign, causing fatal wreck
A 50-year-old man was sentenced to home detention Friday for running a stop sign in Parkland and causing a three-vehicle wreck that killed a 44-year-old man.
Minh Trung Van Phan pleaded guilty in February to vehicular homicide with disregard for the safety of others for the June 18, 2024 wreck. The man killed was Terry A. Charles Jr.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Philip Sorensen sentenced Phan, giving him 90 days of home detention and six months of community custody. The defendant received 48 days credit for time served in jail and on electronic-home monitoring while the case was pending.
Phan was sentenced as a first-time offender, which was in line with prosecutors’ recommendation. He had no prior felony convictions. A standard-range sentence would have been between 15 and 20 months.
The defendant’s case went to trial in October, but it was declared a mistrial Oct. 29 after the jury panel deliberated for about 11 hours and could not decide on Phan’s guilt.
Court documents showed Phan testified at trial Oct. 27 that on the day of the incident he was driving home from Puyallup after dropping his wife off at work. He said he took a way home that wasn’t his usual route.
Phan was driving a black Chevrolet Silverado north on A Street South. Meanwhile, Charles was driving a Toyota Scion west on 99th Street East. Phan went through the stop sign at 99th Street East without stopping and hit a tow truck.
The impact pushed the tow truck into the westbound lane, where it collided with the Scion. The Scion’s front bumper was overridden, according to charging documents, and its hood was pushed into the windshield with at least six inches of intrusion into the cabin. Emergency responders later extricated Charles from the vehicle and transported him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Phan and the tow-truck driver were taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
The speed limit on A Street was 25 mph, according to court documents, and the speed limit on 99th Street was 35 mph. Prosecutors said Phan was going about 35 mph, and the tow-truck driver was going about 51 mph. There was no indication of drug or alcohol use by any of the three drivers.
At trial, Phan testified that he saw a warning sign for the stop sign, but he couldn’t see the sign itself because a garbage truck was parked nearby.
“My plan was to overtake the garbage truck that was parked there, and then I would stop,” Phan said, according to a transcript filed in court records.
Phan’s defense attorney asked him why he didn’t stop if he’d seen the warning sign. Through a Vietnamese interpreter, Phan said he didn’t see the stop sign just before the collision. In English, Phan then said that he thought the stop sign was further down the road. He said when he did see the sign, he tried to stop.
In other news out of Superior Court
Men who stole over 10,000 gallons of diesel in Frederickson get no jail time
Two men who stole thousands of gallons of diesel from a Pierce County fuel station by jamming gas pumps so they recorded only a fraction of the fuel being taken received no jail time at sentencing.
Prosecutors wrote in court filings that restitution had been paid. According to charging documents, between 2023 and 2024, about 10,596 gallons of fuel was stolen that was valued at about $41,174.72.
Gurdip Singh Aujla, 34, and Gurmandeep Singh, 35, both pleaded guilty March 26 to first-degree theft. Judge Timothy Ashcraft sentenced them the same day, giving each man no jail time. The standard sentencing range was zero to 90 days.
The defendants had no prior criminal convictions, according to court records.
The men were ordered to have no contact with the Pacific Pride fuel station in the 5500 block of 163rd Street East in Frederickson. In a victim-impact statement filed with the court, Stephen Snider of Snider Energy said the theft was deeply disruptive and stressful. He said he spent hundreds of unpaid hours investigating the crimes and reviewing security footage.
“The thefts have not only resulted in financial loss, but also a profound sense of violation and frustration,” Snider wrote. “Operating a small business requires immense dedication, and the defendant’s actions undermined that effort and trust.”
Snider Energy contacted the Sheriff’s Office after noticing its sales numbers weren’t matching the fuel levels in its storage tanks. According to the probable cause document, videos showed a group of people pulling one or two tractor-trailers abnormally close to the pumps and positioning them to apparently block cameras.
The suspects would then jam a metal pole into the fuel pump, slowing the fuel counter while the fuel itself dispensed at the normal rate. In one incident, the suspects pumped about 647 gallons of fuel but were billed for 20, resulting in a loss of $2,667.38, according to charging documents.
Investigators connected the thefts to two trucking companies, including GSA Trucking, which is based out of a house in Auburn and was reportedly owned by Aujla. Investigators believed a second company from California was involved, but the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against its owner, stating that there was not sufficient evidence to prove his identity.
