PORT ANGELES — A 30-year-old Federal Way man has been sentenced to two years in prison for violating a domestic violence no-contact order in a September incident that led to a rollover wreck near La Push.
Jeffrey Scott Alma was granted an exceptional mitigated sentenced Feb. 1 after pleading guilty to the felony charge Jan. 17.
Based on his offender score, Alma faced a standard sentencing range of 60 months. Clallam County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney James Kennedy had requested the standard five-year prison term for Alma.
Superior Court Judge Christopher Melly concluded in a Feb. 1 court filing that the protected party, who is Alma’s wife, initiated the contact Sept. 22 before the wreck on state Highway 110.
Melly said the two-year sentence was “adequate punishment” because the woman had initiated the contact and asked for leniency for Alma in a Sept. 17 court hearing.
“The victim, Ms. Alma, initiated the contact inasmuch as she needed help in returning her cousin to La Push, a destination several hours distant by car,” Melly wrote in the conclusions of law.
“The court believes that there are sufficient facts to support a deviation from the standard range.”
Melly found that the cousin’s alcohol abuse and increasing belligerence “necessitated, in Ms. Alma’s view, a speedy return of her to La Push.”
Alma and his wife each said they had been sober since March 2015.
Witnesses told State Patrol investigators that a male driver was hitting a female passenger as they traveled east on La Push Road — Highway 110 — in a 1998 Dodge Dakota at about 4:53 p.m. Sept. 22.
“At one point the passenger side door opened and the female passenger was partially hanging out,” Trooper E.J. Ellefson wrote in the affidavit for probable cause.
“On two occasions witnesses reported the vehicle crossed over into the westbound lanes almost striking oncoming traffic head on.”
The pickup lost control and rolled onto its top, partially blocking the road for about six hours.
The driver, later identified as Alma, left with his wife trapped inside the pickup and ran south into the woods, Ellefson said in his report.
The woman was taken to Forks Community Hospital with “non-serious” injuries, Ellefson said.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew and Port Angeles police K-9 unit found Alma in a grove of bushes about 500 feet west of the crash site at about 9:15 p.m. Sept. 22.
In a seven-page letter filed in Superior Court, Alma’s wife said her cousin became “upset and belligerent” when Alma told her not to drink alcohol as they traveled from Federal Way to La Push.
After dropping off the cousin, Alma’s wife said she was struggling to fasten her seat belt in the bench seat directly behind her husband.
She said Alma was reaching back with his right hand to help her buckle up when the wreck occurred.
Alma had previous misdemeanor domestic violence convictions and felony convictions for robbery, burglary, residential burglaries, thefts and forgeries, Kennedy said in a Tuesday news release.
Alma also has pending felony charges of second-degree possession of stolen property in Pierce and Kitsap counties, Kennedy said in a Wednesday interview.
After his release, Alma will be required to serve one year of community custody and pay $915 in legal fees and $607 in restitution to the state Department of Transportation, according to the minutes of the sentencing hearing.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
