Cameron Bean
Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz on Thursday ordered that Valerie Bray serve 11 months and 29 days in the workhouse for the Sept. 19, 2015, traffic death of runner Cameron Bean at Moccasin Bend.
She was given concurrent two-year sentences for criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. She faced 1-2 years on each count. The state had not recommended a state prison term.
Judge Greenholtz allowed her time to make arrangements for her 89-year-old mother and her son, who has diabetes and MS, prior to reporting to the Silverdale facility.
Several members of the Bray family broke out into tears when the sentence was announced.
There was earlier a six-hour hearing as part of the sentencing.
Judge Greenholtz told Ms. Bray, "To this day we still don't know how this happened. We have no idea how it happened."
He said the evidence showed that, while driving back to her job at Moccasin Bend Mental Hospital, she went across the opposite lane and drove along the other shoulder for the length of two football fields. She then struck the runner, who was on the correct side of the road, the judge said.
Judge Greenholtz said Ms. Bray had been untruthful about the incident, saying he did not believe her statements that the sun got in her eyes or that she thought she hit a deer.
He also questioned whether she had stopped at the scene as she said, saying if she had she would have either seen a clear shoe print on the front of her car, a tennis shoe in the middle of the road or the body of the runner.
The judge said video from the Moccasin Bend Sewage Treatment Plant showed that she was going faster than other cars and was already out of lane.
He said it was "a nice, clear, warm day."
Judge Greenholtz said items in the defendant's favor included the fact that she had apparently transformed her life after picking up several misdemeanor convictions over 25 years earlier. He also noted that she worked almost 19 years as a caregiver at the Moccasin Bend facility.
A probation report found that she was at low risk for re-offending.
The judge said it was once of the most difficult sentencings he has been faced with.
He said it was different from most vehicular homicide cases.