PORT ANGELES — Until a few weeks ago, Steven W. Boyd was on the verge of agreeing to spend five years in jail for alcohol-related vehicular homicide and vehicular assault in connection with an Aug. 25 head-on collision on state Highway 112.
Instead, after his attorney said last month he has new evidence, Boyd reversed course, maintained his not-guilty plea and accepted an April 16 trial date.
The charges against Boyd stem from a crash that killed Darrell E. Campbell, 49, of Ahousat, B.C., and seriously injured Campbell’s brother, Angus Campbell, 57, and his niece, Sophie Campbell, 18.
Boyd, 48, who was not seriously injured in the crash, had verbally agreed in a Feb. 17 Clallam County Superior Court status hearing to plead guilty Feb. 24 and accept five years in prison for vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault.
That changed Feb. 24 when Boyd decided not to plead guilty and was returned to the Clallam County jail on $50,000 bail.
His trial, expected to last up to five days, will begin with jury selection at 9 a.m. April 16.
Alex Stalker of Clallam Public Defender, representing Boyd, said Tuesday that he will challenge results of alcohol tests that were administered to Boyd the day of the collision and that a new witness had come forward, adding a new dimension to authorities’ version of the crash.
Log truck driver Richard Larson told the State Patrol on Feb. 13 that the sun was “extremely bright” the morning of the collision, according to a court record released this week.
County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg said Larson, driving in front of Boyd, had his radio tuned to a police frequency when Larson heard a report of a wreck that was called in to a dispatcher at Peninsula Communications, or PenCom.
“I am a log truck driver, and I had just went through that area on Highway 112 just prior to the collision,” Larson said in his statement to the State Patrol.
“I remember that the sun was extremely bright, actually brighter than any other morning,” he said.
“At the place of the collision, there is a corridor cut in the trees where the sun shines through,” Larson said, adding that he “couldn’t see even with polarized sunglasses.”
Stalker also said he plans to challenge as incorrect the allegedly excessive blood-alcohol level cited by the State Patrol in its probable-cause-for-arrest affidavit, which forms a foundation for the charges.
The legal limit for alcohol consumption in Washington is 0.08 percent.
The collision occurred at about 8:10 a.m. Aug. 25, the State Patrol said.
Boyd’s blood-alcohol level was 0.120 percent at 9:45 a.m. when a blood sample was taken at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, according to the State Patrol affidavit.
But state toxicology laboratory test results of the same sample showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.070 percent, Stalker said.
Then, at 10:06 a.m., Boyd gave the State Patrol a voluntary sample into a portable Breathalyzer that showed a 0.079 percent blood-alcohol level, according to the affidavit.
“There’s no way both of those could be accurate,” Stalker said Tuesday of the blood and breath tests.
“The 0.120 is not even remotely accurate,” he said.
“The blood-alcohol content cannot go from 0.012 to 0.079 in 45 minutes.”
Portable Breathalyzer test results “are usually not admissible into court at all,” State Patrol spokesman Dan Hall said.
“Anytime you have vehicular assault, they contest those findings,” Hall added.
After being shown the Breathalyzer result, Boyd also told the State Patrol he had been drinking the night before and had been taking pain medication, according to the State Patrol affidavit.
About a dozen family members of Darrell Campbell, a member of the Ahousaht First Nation in Vancouver, B.C., will continue making the 10-hour round trip to Port Angeles to attend Boyd’s hearings, family spokesman Pat John said Tuesday.
They will stay on the North Olympic Peninsula for the trial and hope to finance the trip with fundraisers, said John, formerly of Port Angeles, who now lives on Long Island, N.Y.
After Boyd decided not to accept the plea deal, “there were some tears shed,” John said.
“He humbled himself and said he would take this plea, and now he changes his mind,” he said.
“We’re not going to have any bad feelings for the Boyd family or any animosity,” John added.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
