KENT — A 33-year-old Kent man has been charged with felony hit and run in the fatality of a Belfair resident who had stopped to help a stranded Sequim woman.
Dominic L. Dixon was arrested Monday by State Patrol troopers at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where he works, in the March 22 hit-and-run death of Katie Phillips, 34, on state Highway 160, near the Southworth ferry terminal, the Kitsap Daily News reported, adding that bail was set at $500,000.
Phillips, a Washington State Ferries employee who worked at the Southworth ferry terminal, had ended her shift and left work just before 5 a.m. March 22 when she stopped to help Katy D. Meeker, 34, of Sequim, who had run out of gas at Peppermill Place Southeast and Sedgwick Road southeast of Port Orchard.
After returning from a gas station with a filled gasoline container, Phillips had started putting gasoline into Meeker’s vehicle when a sedan identified as a 2002 gold Chevrolet Impala heading westbound struck the Good Samaritan, killing her. Meeker was not injured but, according to reports, was badly shaken up.
Working on tips from motorists and ferry commuters, State Patrol detectives located the vehicle at a Kent residence. It subsequently was seized and taken to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab for evidence processing.
Charging documents say Dixon was known by fellow ferry commuters to be an erratic driver, The Associated Press said, quoting the Kitsap Sun.
A Southworth ferry commuter told investigators the day after the crash that she saw a gold Chevrolet Impala drive over the road flares while other cars were avoiding them, The Kitsap Sun said.
She said she recognized the car as belonging to a fellow ferry commuter — Dixon.
Another commuter contacted investigators the day of the crash and told them about an Impala he had observed several times driving erratically.
