PORT ANGELES — The November trial for a Sequim woman who has been in jail for almost three years after allegedly trying to kill her two youngest sons has been delayed due to the results of a mental evaluation.
The examination determined that Ekaterina A. Parrish, charged with two counts of attempted premeditated first-degree murder, is “not competent, but restorable.”
The report was part of a hearing Oct. 15 in Clallam County Superior Court.
Because of the findings, Judge Simon Barnhart struck Parrish’s Nov. 3 trial date and set a date for a hearing to receive an update on her competency. That hearing is set to take place at 9 a.m. Jan. 9.
Parrish appeared at the hearing via Zoom. She was represented by public defender John Hayden. The hearing lasted just more than five minutes.
Parrish, 47, was jailed Dec. 13, 2022, and held in lieu of $1 million bail after alleging driving her sons down a steep embankment in the 200 block of Hillside Drive, causing the vehicle to barrel roll and airbags to deploy. The crash reportedly resulted in minor injuries to the boys, according to court documents. One of the boys was 9 at the time. The age of the other boy was not reported.
One of the boys told a dispatcher that their mother “intentionally drove their car off a roadway and down a steep hill not meant for motor vehicular traffic to kill herself and them in the process,” according to the probable cause statement.
When officers responded to the scene, they found Parrish “bleeding profusely” from “obvious deep self-inflicted lacerations to both of her inner wrists,” court documents stated.
Parrish was booked and jailed after she was discharged from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she was treated for the cuts to her wrists.
During the Oct. 15 court hearing, Barnhart acknowledged Parrish’s request for substitute counsel but said the request “will be on hold until we get through the competency phase of your matter.”
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Kathy Cruz is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. She can be reached by email at kathy.cruz@sequimgazette.com.
