PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man who crashed a pickup truck into a pair of bicyclists, critically injuring one, on U.S. Highway 101 in September has been sentenced to nine months in the county jail plus a year of community custody.
Anthony J. McKenzie, 28, pleaded guilty Nov. 12 to one count of vehicular assault for injuring Jeanie Chellino in a collision on the highway’s westbound shoulder in Indian Valley west of Port Angeles on Sept. 7.
He was sentenced Tuesday.
Two counts of hit-and-run injury accident were dropped as part of a plea agreement negotiated by Clallam County deputy prosecuting attorney Alexandrea Schodowski and defense attorney John Hayden.
The State Patrol alleged that McKenzie was driving under the influence of prescription medication when he collided with bicycles being ridden by Jeanie and Dominick Chellino of Channahon, Ill.
Dominick Chellino, 58, was treated and discharged from Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles while Jeanie Chellino, 54, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, court papers said.
Jeanie and Dominick Chellino each filed victim impact statements and attended the sentencing hearing in Clallam County Superior Court.
Jeanie Chellino wrote in her statement that she sustained 15 fractures in the crash, had three surgeries, spent 13 days in the trauma center, 14 days in a rehab center, nine weeks in a body brace and more than 12 weeks in a wheelchair.
“Anthony, I pray that this accident is a wake-up call to you,” Jeanie Chellino wrote in a Nov. 21 impact statement.
“I hope you realize how quick your decisions and actions can change your life and others around you.”
Dominick Chellino provided with his statement a photograph of his wife’s badly-mangled bicycle.
Prior to the crash, McKenzie had been followed from Port Angeles by Jordan Bond and his girlfriend, Kristy Davis, who had phoned 9-1-1 because McKenzie’s pickup was swerving in and out of its lane.
After witnessing the collision with the bicyclists, Bond pulled his pickup to the side of McKenzie’s truck and rammed it off the road.
“He hit them and kept going,” Bond said in an October interview.
“There wasn’t really a decision.”
Private fundraisers helped Bond repair about $3,000 worth of damage to his truck.
Dominick Chellino said the couple’s out-of-pocket cost from the crash was about $36,000 as of Nov. 21.
A restitution hearing has not been scheduled yet.
Dominick Chellino wrote that he was “bitter” because of McKenzie’s conduct and also “blessed” that his wife survived, will walk again and “just maybe ride again.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
