PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams has denied a request to reinstate a murder charge against Amber Steim, a Port Angeles woman accused of driving drunk when she caused a wreck that killed a nurse in March 2011.
Steim, 25, is accused of having a 0.23 blood-alcohol level when she allegedly crossed the centerline and caused a wreck that killed Ellen DeBondt on state Highway 112 near Joyce.
Williams on July 6 dismissed a charge of first-degree murder with extreme indifference that Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly filed in April.
He denied Kelly’s motion to reconsider Wednesday.
Steim is now charged with vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and witness tampering.
Steim, who is being held in the Clallam County jail on $500,000 bond, is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 17.
DeBondt, 44, of Crescent Bay was a home health nurse who was on her way to work when the wreck occurred at 7:54 a.m. March 6, 2011.
The legal limit in Washington is 0.08 percent.
In dismissing the murder charge, Williams said Steim’s alleged actions would constitute vehicular homicide, but not murder, under the law.
Motion to reconsider
Kelly had filed a motion for Williams to reconsider his initial ruling July 12, saying the court focused on Steim’s conduct in “too narrow a manner.”
Kelly wrote that Steim worked an eight-hour shift before she drank and partied all night.
“Becoming upset after an argument, she then drove randomly on slick city and county roads for approximately two to two and a half hours before crossing over a yellow line and rumble strip to hit the victim at almost a 45-degree angle of impact,” Kelly wrote.
“The inference from the collision investigation is that she was driving poorly enough such that the victim, Ms. DeBondt, had time to appreciate the danger and pull her own vehicle as far over to her side of the road as possible and come to an almost complete stop before being struck.
“The state submits that the continuing driving conduct in this case is akin to a person continuing to play Russian roulette with a six-shot revolver.”
Williams ruled that this isn’t enough for a murder charge.
“In order to constitute murder in the first degree a driving offense must have some nature of willingness in it beyond choosing to drive when impaired,” Williams wrote.
“‘Driving too fast for conditions’ does not meet the murder in the first degree standard. Merely crossing the centerline does not in and [of] itself meet the standard.
“The standard might be met if, for example, a driver willfully crossed the centerline in an attempt to play ‘chicken’ with an oncoming car, or at a high rate of speed decided to pass traffic on a blind corner.
“Nothing before the court here indicates any such volitional component on the part of Ms. Steim that could approach the proof required to sustain a conviction on a charge of murder in the first degree.”
Urged to reinstate
Williams received dozens of letters last week from DeBondt’s friends and family members who urged the judge to reinstate the murder charge.
Many of the letter-writers cited the 2007 death of Irene Harris, whom Steim struck and killed while driving at night in Port Angeles, to support the charge of Steim’s “extreme indifference.”
Harris, 49, was walking across Front Street at Albert Street when she was hit by a 1994 Acura Integra driven by Steim. Harris died the next day at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Steim was ticketed for failure to yield to a pedestrian. No criminal charges were filed.
Port Angeles City Attorney Dennis Dickson said at the time that Port Angeles police reported that Steim was not speeding, overly distracted or driving recklessly; he characterized the death as “an unfortunate accident.”
Other letter-writers referred to Steim’s violation of her bail requirement to refrain from drinking alcohol.
The alcohol-monitoring device that Steim was required to wear detected a 0.058 percent blood-alcohol level last October.
The letters, which appeared in Steim’s court file last week, had been removed from the digital case log by Friday.
Superior Court Administrator Melinda Clevenger said the letters were on her desk Friday afternoon.
“I’m in the process of making copies to send to the involved counsel in this matter,” Clevenger said.
Port Angeles attorney Ralph Anderson is representing Steim.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
