PORT TOWNSEND — A Port Townsend man has begun serving a sentence of more than three years after he pleaded guilty to charges of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault following an early morning wreck in January that killed his friend.
Taylour John Eldridge, 25, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of vehicular homicide in a reckless manner and a second count of being under the influence of intoxicants in a Jan. 17 single-car crash on state Highway 20 near Eaglemount Road.
Gregory Bolling, 23, of Port Townsend suffered severe injuries in the wreck and died a few days later in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Eldridge was sentenced to 41 months — a little more than three years and four months — in prison, minus credit for 81 days for time already served under electronic monitoring.
After his release, he is subject to 18 months of supervision.
He was taken to the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, where he was to be evaluated and sent to a prison facility, according to Jefferson County Prosecutor Mike Haas.
While Eldridge, in his guilty plea, admitted responsibility for Bolling’s death, a statement from Bolling’s mother urged forgiveness.
“I know Greg would forgive you. I too must forgive you,” Bolling’s mother, Michelle West, wrote in a statement filed in court documents.
“But forgiveness is an action that I must do over again [and] forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting.”
Eldridge and a second passenger in his car — Amelia R. Syska-Patten, 20, also of Port Townsend — also were injured in the 1:30 a.m. crash.
They were airlifted to Harborview with Bolling.
Eldridge and Syska-Patten were treated and discharged.
The State Patrol said speed was the cause of the wreck and that drugs or alcohol were involved.
Troopers said Eldridge was driving a 2006 Chevrolet pickup truck eastbound on Highway 20 when he failed to negotiate a curve, went over an embankment, crashed into a tree and overturned near Discovery Bay.
West’s six-page handwritten statement addressed Bolling, noting, “With each passing day there are reminders of you everywhere.”
Then it implored Eldridge to consider the effect of his actions.
“I just want you to . . . have an understanding of the impact this had,” she wrote.
“And with that understanding . . . help others learn from your mistake and perhaps even save a life through all of this.”
A statement from Douglas Bolling, Greg’s father, contained 16 paragraphs, some as short as a single word, that captured his feelings about losing a son.
One paragraph described the removal from life support:
“Time to say goodbye. No. It can’t be. He’s just beginning life. Gotten his own place. Making Honors grades in college. Working to finance his way. Becoming an adult.
“Gone.”
Court Commissioner Steven Gillard imposed the sentence. Superior Court Judge Keith Harper recused himself due to his relationship with the family.
Eldridge is the grandson of former Jefferson County Auditor Donna Eldridge.
Haas said he got to know West and Douglas Bolling during the process and said, “Greg sounded like a really nice kid who was just starting out in life.”
“A great deal of deference is given to the family in a case like this,” Haas said.
“The prosecutor makes the ultimate recommendation about what the sentence might be, but we do listen to the family members closely.”
“Mike Haas was amazing in the way that he talked to me and kept me informed,” West said.
“He was generous and caring, and I felt that I’d really been heard.”
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
