Driver who hit pedestrian, then fled, gets 8 months in jail

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 24, 2017

EVERETT — Scotty Becktell’s positive attitude is remarkable given what was taken from him.

A year ago he was walking to his job at McDonald’s on 128th Street SW south of Everett when he was struck by a SUV. Becktell, 22, was thrown into the air. The driver didn’t stop, leaving a severely injured Becktell in the street.

The impact severed Becktell’s spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He uses a motorized wheelchair to get around. He requires an electric hospital bed at home.

His mother, Lynn Becktell, quit her job to take care of her son. His upbeat attitude has helped pull the family through these hard months. He hasn’t given into anger or bitterness, she said.

“We don’t call him Smilin’ Scotty for nothing,” his grandmother, Terry Robertson, said.

Scott Duncan, the driver who hit Becktell and fled the scene, was sentenced Tuesday to eight months in jail. He pleaded guilty in November to hit-and-run injury accident, a felony.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Millie Judge rejected his request for a first-time offender waiver, which would have spared him any jail time.

Becktell’s family wanted Duncan to spend time behind bars. The defendant left her son for dead, Lynn Becktell said. There has to be some punishment for his actions.

The injured man’s 9-year-old niece quietly asked the judge for justice for her uncle. He “can’t do all the things he used to do,” the girl said. The driver needs to go to jail until he learns his lesson, Gaby Becktell said.

Duncan, 33, apologized Tuesday and maintained that he didn’t realize he’d hit Scotty Becktell that night. He told detectives his windshield was fogged up. He also claimed that he returned to the scene about 20 minutes later and didn’t see any police activity.

Judge didn’t buy Duncan’s story. Becktell weighed around 300 pounds at the time of the collision, Judge pointed out.

“I find it very difficult to believe you didn’t know you hit a person,” she said. “I really think you knew it happened and you panicked.”

The end of the collision was captured by a traffic surveillance camera. A nearby laundromat had video of a Ford Edge parked in front of the business until shortly before the collision.

The video was clear enough that part of the license plate could be read. Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives checked vehicle registration records. That led to Duncan, who lived less than a mile from the collision scene and across the street from the offices where the investigators work, according to court papers.

The SUV was parked in the driveway. A detective “saw that the front passenger side hood of the Edge had a significant dent and crinkling which was consistent with a pedestrian impact,” court papers said. “The hood of the Edge was dislodged and there was a crack near the passenger head lamp.”

Before that night, Duncan appeared to be a productive family man, who coached youth sports and hadn’t been in trouble with the law, Judge said. But the measure of a man isn’t how he acts on his best day but how he acts on his worst, she said.

“It’s morally outrageous you left (Becktell) injured in the street,” Judge said.

Under the law, Duncan faced up to nine months in jail. Judge gave him some credit for pleading guilty, sparing the family a trial. Duncan was taken into custody Tuesday.

Lynn Becktell said the collision turned their lives upside down. Finances got tight when she had to leave her job and they got behind on their rent, she said. Now, they are faced with finding a new place to live that will accommodate a wheelchair. Under the statute, Judge can’t order Duncan to pay restitution to Becktell.

Becktell’s grandmother wants the county to do more to make the intersection where Becktell was hit safer for pedestrians. Becktell was in the crosswalk at the time. It’s dangerous, Terry Robertson said.

Between 2008 and 2015, 20 people have been hit while crossing 128th along a 1.2-mile stretch that connects the interstate with Highway 99, according to data obtained by The Daily Herald. Yearly more than 14 million vehicle trips are logged on that busy stretch of road. Many of the pedestrian accidents often involve drivers making right or left hand turns.

Scotty Becktell didn’t speak to the judge Tuesday. He is a quiet, gentle young man. He later told reporters that he was nervous before the hearing.

“I’m glad he’s getting some jail time,” Becktell said. “It should be more than enough to teach him a good lesson.”

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