Prosecutors try to prove crash that killed nurse was murder

EVERETT — Rachael Kamin was unconscious and bleeding from the head when police officers pulled her from the wreckage of her Honda CRV, then lying toppled over on a downtown Everett sidewalk.

Kamin, a nurse, was driving home from her shift at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett when she crossed paths with Joseph Strange.

Strange had been barreling down Rucker Avenue in a stolen pickup truck, trying to outrun Bothell police, a Snohomish County jury was told Wednesday. He ran a red light and plowed into the passenger side of Kamin’s vehicle, pushing it some 160 feet.

“The officers remember seeing a cloud of dust and glass,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow said. “It looked like there had been an explosion.”

Kamin, a mother of two, suffered fatal head injuries in the May 12, 2013, crash. She was removed from life support and died two days later. She was 40.

Lawyers gave opening statements Wednesday in what is expected to be a two-week trial.

Strange, 35 is charged with first-degree murder under the theory that he caused Kamin’s death “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life.”

Strange also is charged with second-degree murder. Under that theory he is accused causing Kamin’s death while trying to outrun the cops.

Darrow spent much of his opening statements walking jurors through the events that led up to the deadly crash. The jury got its first look at the pursuit route that spanned between Bothell and Everett. Speeds reached up to 90 mph.

Darrow will have to prove that Strange knew he was endangering lives but continued to race away from the cops.

Jurors were told that Strange crashed into two vehicles in a Lynnwood convenience store parking lot, including Bothell police officer Mark Atterbury’s patrol car. A Bothell police sergeant had called off the pursuit earlier but Atterbury picked up the chase again after his car was hit in the parking lot, Darrow said.

He believed what happened there was dangerous enough to reactivate the pursuit, Darrow said.

Strange’s attorney, public defender Donald Wackerman, urged jurors to keep an open mind and to listen carefully to all the evidence presented, particularly how police described the risks they perceived during the chase.

“There is no dispute that this is a horrible tragedy” and that Strange bears some criminal responsibility, he said. But convicting his client of first-degree murder would just create more harm, the defense attorney said.

Wackerman said evidence will show that Bothell police disregarded their own policies when they began chasing Strange and didn’t back off, despite being told by their sergeant to do so.

A surveillance tape shows the circumstances of the crash outside the convenience store don’t match the officer’s description of Strange trying to ram him with the truck, the lawyer said. While prosecutors are now claiming that the chase presented a grave risk to the public, that’s not how officers were behaving that night, nor how they described the pursuit when defending their actions during the police department’s internal review, Wackerman said.

“No one involved in that action that night recognized a grave risk of death, and that is what the state has to prove,” he said.

Atterbury was given a one-day suspension for his involvement in the pursuit. The officer misjudged the situation, but that was not a willful or deliberate act of wrongdoing, the Bothell Police Chief Carol Cummings wrote.

“I want to clearly state that the cause of this tragedy rests squarely on the shoulders of the suspect,” she wrote to the officer. “His actions that night showed repeated disregard for the life and safety of his fellow citizens.”

Since the crash, the Bothell Police Department has adopted stricter policies regarding when officers can engage in car chases. The policy changes already were in the works before May 12, 2013.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Everett mall renderings from Brixton Capital. (Photo provided by the City of Everett)
Topgolf at the Everett Mall? Mayor’s hint still unconfirmed

After Cassie Franklin’s annual address, rumors circled about what “top” entertainment tenant could be landing at Everett Mall.

Everett
Everett man sentenced to 3 years of probation for mutilating animals

In 2022, neighbors reported Blayne Perez, 35, was shooting and torturing wildlife in north Everett.

The Washington State University Snohomish County Extension building at McCollum Park is located in an area Snohomish County is considering for the location of the Farm and Food Center on Thursday, March 28, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Year-round indoor farmers market inches closer to reality near Mill Creek

The Snohomish County Farm and Food Center received $5 million in federal funding. The county hopes to begin building in 2026.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett leaders plan to ask voters for property tax increase

City officials will spend weeks hammering out details of a ballot measure, as Everett faces a $12.6 million deficit.

Starbucks employee Zach Gabelein outside of the Mill Creek location where he works on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Mill Creek, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mill Creek Starbucks votes 21-1 to form union

“We obviously are kind of on the high of that win,” store bargaining delegate Zach Gabelein said.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Police: Teen in stolen car flees cops, causes crash in Lynnwood

The crash blocked traffic for over an hour at 176th Street SW. The boy, 16, was arrested on felony warrants.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.