Man faces felony charge for Everett hit-and-run accident

Published 1:30 am Monday, September 12, 2016

EVERETT — When Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives tracked down the vehicle suspected of putting Scotty Becktell in a wheelchair, they didn’t have far to go.

It was parked across the street from the south Everett office where collision-investigation detectives work.

It was outside the apartment of the man Snohomish County prosecutors last week accused of being responsible for the Jan. 23 hit-and-run accident.

Becktell, 22, was struck while walking across 128th Street south of Everett. He was headed home from his graveyard shift at McDonald’s.

He stepped off the curb and into the crosswalk. He woke up in a Seattle hospital with a spinal injury doctors say likely will keep him from ever walking again.

The Ford Edge SUV that struck Becktell was headed south on 8th Avenue W. The collision was captured by a surveillance camera a detective spotted outside a nearby laundromat, deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow said in documents filed in Snohomish County Superior Court.

“That video shows the front passenger corner of the SUV impacting Becktell, who is projected forward until his body stopped near the curb adjacent to the sound edge of the roadway,” he wrote. “The SUV did not stop, instead it continued to drive eastbound on 128th Street until it was out of view.”

The video was clear enough that part of the license plate could be read. Detectives checked vehicle registration records. That led to a man who lived less than a mile from the collision scene and across the street from the offices where the investigators work, Darrow wrote.

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.”

The vehicle reportedly was driven by Scott Edward Duncan, 32.

Investigators spoke with his wife. Duncan called detectives that same day and agreed to drop by for a conversation, Darrow wrote.

He reportedly acknowledged that he had been in a crash Jan. 23, that the windows in his vehicle had fogged up and it was hard to see.

“He said he noticed striking something in the road. He said he looked back but did not see anything so he proceeded on his way,” the prosecutor wrote.

The man spotted the damage to his vehicle once he got home. He said he returned to the scene about 20 minutes later, but reported no one was there.

During the conversation with detectives, Duncan at one point said “I know I hit something bigger, but I had no idea what it was,” the prosecutor alleged.

He charged Duncan with one count of hit-and-run injury accident, a felony. The defendant has no known criminal history. Under state sentencing guidelines, he faces three to nine months in jail, Darrow said.

The prosecutor said he met with Becktell in mid June. The man remains confined to a wheelchair.

“He reported to me that the Haborview physicians have informed him he will not walk again,” Darrow wrote.

Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.