Grant Fosheim got drunk Feb. 23. He got behind the wheel of his muscle car.
Then he raced with another young man at 80 mph through downtown Everett, skidding around corners, blasting through a flashing red light and crashing into a van.
Three lives ended in that instant.
On Thursday, the tearful 20-year-old was sentenced to six years in prison, the maximum punishment for vehicular homicide under state sentencing guidelines.
But there was more. The judge also admonished him to heed the words of the husband of one of his victims, and to try to give those he harmed a reason to forgive.
"The rest of your life should be an atonement," Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda Krese said.
Fosheim’s sentencing brought a crowd that filled every seat in the courtroom. Family and friends of those killed struggled through tears and anger to explain the enormity of their loss.
The van’s driver, Jenny McCollum, 52, was a new grandmother, on her way home from work at an antiques store. The other victims, Michael Seavy, 20, and Cory Baudry, 18, were passengers in Fosheim’s 1994 Ford Mustang. A third passenger in the car, Dan Terry, 19, also was seriously injured.
Fosheim was in a court supervised drug-treatment program at the time of the crash. Tests showed that had drank enough rum to have a blood-alcohol level more than double the legal limit, according to court papers.
On the day he died, Seavy was marking his 20th birthday, talking marriage with his girlfriend, Michele Jodock, and just starting to make his way in the business world. Seavy’s older sister, Rachel McQuery, wept as she spoke about how he didn’t live to see her wedding, or his own, or the families they’d both hoped to raise.
"He would have been a wonderful uncle and also a wonderful father," she told Fosheim. "You have taken all of this away from us, all of us."
Pam Baudry said the loss of her son is a constant presence in her life, made worse because his death was the result of poor judgment by a close friend.
"I know Grant is not a bad person," she said. "I know this. He just made a really, really bad choice that is just killing us."
McCollum’s son, Kevin, said he wanted Fosheim to "clearly see the lives you destroyed," but he didn’t think the young man capable.
His wife, Lisa, talked about sitting at the dinner table the night of the crash and listening to the sirens of emergency vehicles headed to the death scene. Just nine days before, she had given birth to Jenny McCollum’s first grandchild, a boy named Gabriel.
There is a void in her life once filled by a woman she came to think of as a second mother, Lisa McCollum said.
"There won’t be any more garage sale signs. No more presents from Ross. No more trips to the zoo. No more tramps through the mud for Christmas trees … No more ‘I love you guys’ as we exit through her beautiful tea roses," she said.
McCollum’s husband of 32 years, Jerry, wasn’t at the hearing. In a guest editorial published Thursday in The Herald, the man said all he really wants from Fosheim is a reason to one day forgive.
Judge Krese told Fosheim he should keep Jerry McCollum’s words, and the letters from others touched by the crimes, so he can read them in prison. Fosheim needs to spend his time behind bars pondering what he did and what he now needs to do to make amends if he is ever to find redemption, Krese said.
Fosheim blinked back tears as he apologized for "unbelievably stupid actions." He promised that one day he’d use the example of his own mistakes to help others avoid the similar choices.
"I don’t think you can just expect forgiveness," Krese said. "I think you have to work at it."
Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.
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