EVERETT — An Everett man was sentenced to just over nine years in prison for the drunk driving crash that killed Paulo A. “Tony” Rubio in 2020.
Alejandro Barajas, 32, pleaded guilty last year to vehicular homicide and hit-and-run fatality accident.
On the morning of Feb. 9, 2020, Rubio finished his graveyard shift at Boeing and was a few blocks from his Everett home. He was driving west on Madison Street and crossing the Evergreen Way intersection through a green light, according to court papers.
Just before 6:15 a.m., Barajas ran a red light in a Chevy Tahoe and smashed into Rubio’s pickup, ripping the pickup in half. A witness reported she saw a man, later identified as Barajas, get out of the Tahoe and run away from the scene.
When police arrived at the intersection, the Tahoe was empty. Paramedics attempted CPR, but Rubio died at the scene.
About 30 minutes later, Barajas was arrested when he was found walking along Dogwood Lane, more than a mile from the crash scene.
Barajas was charged in Snohomish County Superior Court six months later. In April 2021, he was sentenced to prison followed by 1½ years of probation.
At a sentencing hearing, family and friends mourned the loved one they lost.
Three family members sent letters for the judge to read.
“Who was Paulo Antonio Rubio?” wrote the man’s niece Karlee Johnson. “He was our ‘Tony.’ He was a father, brother, husband, cousin, friend, etc. He was the glue to our family. Even when he wasn’t around, he was always checking on you.”
Rubio was 56 when he died. He grew up in Everett and was the ninth of 10 children: five boys and five girls. He worked in the tool room at Boeing, checking out equipment to Machinists. He was a longtime Seahawks ticket holder and often organized family holiday celebrations. He liked building birdhouses and spending time by bonfires listening to waves crash against the rocks on the beach in Mukilteo.
The man would go out of his way to give his daughters a ride after a long work shift, his daughter Kaitlyn Rubio wrote.
“There are moments in my days, especially on the hard ones, where I stop in my tracks and hear his voice telling me that he is proud of me,” she wrote. “It haunts me knowing I don’t get the opportunity to hear him say it in person anywhere.”
The Daily Herald’s policy is to follow cases through sentencing if the suspect defendant has been named in a previous story. Herald reporters recently discovered the paper had not followed up on the outcome of this case.
As of this week Barajas was serving his time at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center southwest of Olympia.
Ellen Dennis: 425-339-3486; ellen.dennis@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterellen.
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