PORT ANGELES — An allegedly drunken driver who was in a fatal head-on collision Aug. 25 on state Highway 112 will plead guilty to vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault and will serve five years in prison.
Steven W. Boyd, 48, of Port Angeles killed Darrell E. Campbell, 49, an Ahousat, B.C., tribal member and severely injured Campbell’s brother and niece when he hit their vehicle.
In a five-minute status hearing Friday, Boyd told Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams he would change his plea from not guilty to guilty and was returned to Clallam County jail on $50,000 bail.
Hearing Friday
Williams set 1:30 p.m. this coming Friday for a change-of-plea hearing for Boyd, who will be sentenced at a subsequent hearing, county Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg said.
A charge of driving under the influence was an element of the vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges against Boyd, Troberg said.
The State Patrol said Boyd had a 0.12 percent blood-alcohol level from a blood sample taken 95 minutes after the wreck and a 0.079 percent blood-alcohol level taken from a portable Breathalyzer about two hours after the wreck.
The legal limit in Washington is 0.08 percent.
About a dozen members of the family of Darrell Campbell, a member of the Ahousaht First Nation, were present in Clallam County Superior Court when Boyd said through his lawyer, Alex Stalker of Clallam Public Defender, that he would change his plea to guilty of vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault.
Among them was Angus Campbell, the driver of the vehicle that was struck by Boyd, who was treated at Olympic Medical Center after the wreck. He was on crutches at the hearing.
A few of the family members left sobbing after the hearing.
The family members included Darrell Campbell’s nephew, Pat John, a former Port Angeles resident who now lives on Long Island, N.Y.
John helped organize a prayer ceremony for his uncle at the site near Sands Road a day after the crash and Friday.
In agreeing to plead guilty, Boyd, who has a daughter, “humbled himself in doing the right thing,” John said in an interview.
“It’s being humble and accepting what he did and accepting his responsibility as an individual and a parent.”
He said North Olympic Peninsula tribes had helped with travel and other expenses for Darrell Campbell’s family to travel to Clallam County for court proceedings.
John said in an earlier interview that Darrell Campbell did not drink and “was always the designated driver.”
Darrell Campbell was a fisheries manager for the Ahousaht tribe who was traveling to Neah Bay for a fisheries meeting with the Makah tribe at about 8 a.m. Aug. 25, police said.
He also planned to attend Makah Days.
He was a right-front-seat passenger in the Ford Ranger driven by Angus Campbell, 57.
Head-on collision
Boyd was driving an Isuzu Rodeo when he struck the pickup truck head-on, police said.
Campbell’s niece, Sophie Campbell, 18, who was riding on the left side in the back, was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Police said she had facial injuries, a ruptured spleen, a ruptured bladder and a fractured pelvis, foot, ribs and spine.
Angus Campbell suffered facial injuries and a fractured hip, femur and knee, police said.
Angus Campbell told police the morning of the crash that he was traveling westbound on Highway 112 when Boyd’s SUV crossed the centerline.
He told police he tried to avoid Boyd but could not.
Boyd told police he was driving to work at Nippon Paper Industries USA in Port Angeles and was running late but was not speeding.
He told police he could not remember crossing the centerline.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
