EVERETT — For Washington State Trooper Christopher Gadd, the early morning hours of March 2, 2024, began like any other: routine patrol, making traffic stops, scanning the interstate for impaired drivers.
He often worked with his patrol car “blacked out” — headlights off but engine running — a tactic troopers use to spot dangerous drivers before being seen themselves.
Just before 3 a.m., he pulled onto the northbound shoulder of I-5 near Marysville, parking in the dark.
Meanwhile, Raul Benitez Santana was driving from Mount Vernon, heading home after a first date. He’d had some drinks and food at a bar called Draft Picks Pub, according to prosecutors. He was speeding.
As he merged into the shoulder, brake lights appeared too late in front of him. Prosecutors say there wasn’t enough time to react.
His black SUV slammed into the back of Gadd’s patrol vehicle. The force of the collision crushed the cruiser into a “C” shape, prosecutors said. Gadd, 27, was killed by the impact.
On Friday, Benitez Santana, 34, appeared in Snohomish County Superior Court to face charges of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. Opening statements marked the start of a three-week trial before Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Karen D. Moore.
“This was a routine evening — until it wasn’t,” deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow told jurors.
Darrow said Benitez Santana had claimed he’d only had one drink around 10 p.m. But surveillance footage from the bar appeared to show more: two beers, a mixed drink and a shot. A blood test taken within two hours of the crash measured his blood-alcohol content at 0.083 — just over the legal limit — and detected 3.4 nanograms of THC.
At the time of the crash, Gadd had been parked for roughly two minutes, Darrow said.
“The force of the impact killed Trooper Gadd almost instantly. It caused severe fractures to the back of his skull,” Darrow said.
Data from the vehicle’s event recorder indicated the SUV was traveling at 112 mph just before the crash, with the accelerator almost fully depressed, court documents said.
Benitez Santana appeared in court Friday, wearing a light blue, button-down shirt. The courtroom was full of media and spectators. He sat with defense attorneys Tiffany Mecca and Emily Hancock. Deputy prosecutors Darrow and Isaac Wells represented the state.
Mecca opened the defense by calling the crash a “series of unfortunate circumstances” — not a crime.
“In the dark early morning hours … one of the darkest stretches of I-5 … led to a tragic accident,” Mecca said.
She argued Gadd’s vehicle gave no warning to other drivers and was effectively invisible in the dark. Moments after the initial crash, a white Navy van driven by a sleep-deprived worker also struck Benitez Santana’s disabled SUV.
Mecca maintained her client was cooperative and not impaired. She questioned the integrity of the blood test and pointed to coordination issues in the investigation, led by the sheriff’s office rather than state patrol.
“This was a tragic accident,” Mecca said. “But it was not a crime.”
Earlier this week, Moore denied a defense motion to dismiss the case. Hancock and Mecca argued the prosecution violated Washington’s sanctuary laws by disclosing Benitez Santana’s immigration status to federal authorities. Deputy prosecutor Amanda Campbell admitted a member of her office sent two emails in violation of the law, citing a “misunderstanding.”
Moore found the state’s conduct did not meet the threshold to dismiss the case, calling the defense’s claims of prejudice speculative.
Trooper Gadd joined the patrol in 2021 and was stationed in Yakima County. He is survived by his daughter and his father, who also serves as a trooper. A public memorial in Everett last year drew hundreds of law enforcement officers from across the region.
The trial is scheduled to run through June 6.
Aspen Anderson: 425-339-3192; aspen.anderson@heraldnet.com; X: @aspenwanderson.
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