3-time DUI driver sent to prison for Lynnwood hit-and-run

Lynnwood police officer Stephen Showalter (left) met Kevin Warner (right), after Warner was involved in a hit and run crash when a car hit his motorcycle just blocks from his home in Lynnwood.

Lynnwood police officer Stephen Showalter (left) met Kevin Warner (right), after Warner was involved in a hit and run crash when a car hit his motorcycle just blocks from his home in Lynnwood.

EVERETT — An Auburn woman has been sent to prison for a drunken hit-and-run crash in Lynnwood in February 2014.

Pamela Y. Stearns had two previous DUI convictions, from 2002 and 2005, court records show. The 52-year-old pleaded guilty in December to vehicular assault and hit-and-run. She was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

Stearns recently was transferred from the Snohomish County Jail to the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor.

On the night of Feb. 13, 2014, Stearns was headed home from Lynnwood when she ran a stop sign and collided with a motorcycle. The motorcyclist, Kevin Warner, suffered a shattered left knee cap and a broken bone in his left leg, plus a broken toe on his right foot, a broken bone in his right hand and a dislocated right shoulder.

Stearns drove off from the accident. Police caught up with her nearby. A blood test taken more than four hours after the crash showed her blood-alcohol level at .12. The legal limit to drive is .08.

Police found a mostly empty bottle of vodka, empty beer cans and an unopened six-pack in her car.

Warner couldn’t walk for weeks and still relies on a cane, two years later, he wrote in a letter to the judge. He has undergone four surgeries and anticipates more. At times, his pain can be “completely and totally debilitating,” he wrote.

“The emotional and physiological toll that it has taken on my family brought us to tears on many occasions in the immediate months that followed, as we recounted events and realized just how close I came to being killed, my wife becoming widowed and my children losing their father,” he wrote.

Warner was injured near his Lynnwood home. He alleged that Stearns was driving without insurance. His injuries made him lose months of pay.

Warner has tried to become less angry about what happened, he wrote. However, he still cannot understand how Stearns drove off “after seeing the immense pain that she had caused me, and then (decided) that despite all of it that I wasn’t worth her time … She nearly killed me.”

Stearns agreed to a settlement for damages with Warner last spring, court records show. The amount was not disclosed. Warner alleged at the sentencing she has not been making the payments they agreed upon.

Several people wrote letters to the court in support of her being given work release or another alternative to prison. A counselor said she has been trying to stay sober and “holds remorse in her heart for any harm which she has caused to another.”

One letter came from King County Councilman Larry Gossett, who wrote that Stearns is an important advocate and activist for American Indian rights. Stearns is a member of the Tlingit tribe of Alaska and in 2006 founded the City of Seattle Native American Employees Association, court records show.

Gossett wrote that Stearns also has been an activist against domestic violence. However, records show she has two domestic-violence misdemeanor convictions from 2010.

Gossett had asked that Stearns be allowed to work as a counselor for alcoholics instead of going to prison.

“Pamela is a special woman who has made many positive contributions to our community,” he wrote.

A state database shows that Stearns no longer has a driver’s license.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.

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.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Everett police searching for missing child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive. The child was missing under “suspicious circumstances.”

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

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.