COUPEVILLE — An Oak Harbor woman is now charged with three counts of vehicular homicide after crashing while she allegedly was trying to remove her sweater while driving Sept. 3.
Jordyn Weichert, 20, also has been charged with two counts of vehicular assault in the deadly crash on Highway 20 south of the Monkey Hill Road intersection on Whidbey Island. The accident happened the first night of busy Labor Day weekend.
Island County deputy prosecutor David Carman said no decision has been made about possible charges against a second woman, a 22-year-old Oak Harbor resident who reportedly was steering from the passenger side at the time of crash.
Weichert’s Chevrolet Blazer struck an oncoming car on Highway 20. The Canadian driver of the other vehicle, Brian Wood, 33, a lead designer of 3D computer games, died at the scene and his pregnant wife was injured. Two passengers in Weichert’s vehicle, Francis Malloy and Jacob Quistorf, both 26 and from Oak Harbor, also died.
“We got enough from the State Patrol’s preliminary reports that we determined we had probable cause to file the charges,” Carman said.
The passenger who could face charges remains in the hospital with injuries to her pelvis. Carman has been looking for other criminal cases which could involve more than one driver of a single vehicle. He said he believes he has found a similar case, which he is now reviewing.
At the crash site, a Washington State Patrol detective asked that both women be arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide.
“The detective based this on the reckless act of removing clothing while traveling 55 mph, loss of control of the vehicle fully into the oncoming lane, drugs located at the collision scene that were from the occupants of the Chevrolet, poor judgment by (the passenger) and Weichert and the death of three people,” according to court papers.
Investigators are continuing to investigate whether drugs might have contributed to the accident.
They recovered heroin, cocaine and marijuana inside Weichert’s Blazer.
Weichert told a trooper that she smoked marijuana the morning of the accident but denied using other drugs, court papers said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3346, stevick@heraldnet.com
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