3 years for hit and run

Published 12:01 am Thursday, January 13, 2011

EVERETT — A judge on Wednesday sentenced a Monroe woman to three years in prison for fleeing from the scene of a deadly accident in 2009 just outside of Sultan.

Teresa Ort was allowed to remain free while she appeals her conviction. That could take a year or more.

Ort testified that she thought she had hit some garbage that fell from the truck in front of her. Jurors last month, however, were convinced that Ort knew that she had hit a person and broke the law when she failed to stop for Paula Stierns on Oct. 9, 2009.

Stierns had spent the day with her husband fishing on the Skykomish River. She was walking back to the travel trailer where she lived. Stierns, who was intoxicated, was near the middle of the road when she was struck.

She died at the scene from severe injuries to the neck and head.

Snohomish County sheriff’s Detective Al Baker identified the vehicle that struck Stierns from pieces of a broken plastic fender liner that were found under Stierns’ clothes, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow wrote.

Baker was able to match the broken pieces to Ort’s Suzuki Vitara, according to charging papers.

Because Ort hit a person and fled that makes her more culpable than if she’d ran from a crash involving vehicles, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Anita Farris said on Wednesday.

For that reason Farris declined to grant Ort a first-time offender waiver that likely would have sent Ort to jail for about three months. Farris, however, said there were reasons to give Ort a low-end sentence, including a lack of felony history and the letters indicating that Ort, 47, had been a contributing member of society before the accident.

Ort on Wednesday called the collision a “terrible tragedy.” She said she couldn’t imagine anyone, including herself, running away after hitting a person.

“I feel horrible for her family and the loss of Paula,” she said.

Stierns’ relatives had asked for a stiffer sentence and were dismayed that Ort wasn’t taken into custody after the sentence.

“Paula was a kind-hearted and loving person,” her sister Bonnie Griffin said.

She didn’t have much, but she was always willing to share what she had, including the clothes off her back, Griffin said.

Griffin also read a letter written by Stierns’ daughter, Brandy Ross.

“No time will heal the hurt that will remain in us,” Ross had written.

Darrow asked that Ort be held on $250,000 bail if she wasn’t taken into custody on Wednesday.

Ort’s attorney Mark Mestel argued against a high bail, saying his client hasn’t missed any court appearances and wasn’t a flight risk. There are grounds for an appeal, including what Mestel contends is an illegal search by police, but that could take more than a year.

Farris agreed to lower bail to $5,000 and gave Ort until Monday to post bond to avoid going to jail. She also ordered that Ort not dawdle in pursuing her appeal. The judge also required that she not commit any new crimes or drive without a valid driver’s license.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.