Family’s plea answered

EVERETT — Janice Stivers urged the judge to keep the suspect locked up without bail.

The Lake Stevens mother said she didn’t want another family to experience the grief she has endured in the six weeks since her daughter was killed in a suspected drunken driving crash.

Randy J. Sedy,

45, was arrested Wednesday night for investigation of vehicular homicide and attempting to elude police. Police allege the Arlington man’s blood-alcohol level was almost four times the legal limit shortly after his pickup crashed into Meghan Stivers‘ car, killing the Lake Stevens woman. He had a previous drunken driving conviction with a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit.

“I believe he has the high probability of drinking and driving again, which could result in devastation, destruction and another unwanted and unwarranted death to other families,” Stivers told Everett District Court Judge pro tem Rico Tessandore.

Tessandore set bail at $500,000, double the amount sought by prosecutors.

Marysville police attempted to stop a 1996 Dodge Ram pickup around 11:15 p.m. July 29 after receiving reports of a possible drunken driver. The driver refused to stop for officers and crashed into multiple vehicles, as if he was “aiming” at them before the fatal collision near the intersection of 33rd Avenue and Marine Drive just west of I-5, according to court papers. No one was injured in the initial collisions.

Sedy is accused of hitting two of the cars within a few blocks of each other and ignoring a police officer, who drew his weapon and ordered him to stop, before the fatal crash.

A witness first spotted Sedy’s southbound truck weaving across lanes and the center line and onto a sidewalk on State Avenue in Marysville, court papers said. The witness said the pickup later turned westbound into the eastbound lanes of Fourth Street and crashed into an oncoming car.

A Marysville police officer said she saw the pickup slam into a BMW and turn it sideways on Fourth Street. The truck’s driver continued to push on the accelerator in an attempt to push the car out of the way, causing the tires to spin and smoke on the pavement, according to court papers.

Another Marysville officer who’d stopped in a gas station parking lot witnessed the same collision. He said he drew his gun and shouted commands at the pickup driver to stop. The pickup kept going and the officer said he took cover behind his patrol car because he thought the driver was going to run him over.

The officer alleged that “Sedy drove away as if nothing had happened.”

A few blocks away, the westbound pickup crossed over the eastbound lanes of Marine Drive NE, jumped the sidewalk and struck Stivers’ Mercury Sable. Her car was stopped at the back entrance to the Best Western Hotel on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Her mother said she had just finished a work shift at the hotel and pulled over to avoid a collision.

Police officers and paramedics attempted to revive her. She died at the scene.

Officers said Sedy smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech and bloodshot eyes.

A reading taken at a hospital showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.31. The legal limit in Washington is 0.08.

Sedy allegedly told officers he had been drinking alcohol — beer and also vodka with Mountain Dew.

When an officer asked if his ability to drive was impaired, Sedy allegedly responded, “Impaired? Any time you drink it’s impaired.”

Sedy has a 2005 drunken-driving conviction. Court records from that case show Sedy had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.27 after he crashed into the back of a car on Broadway in north Everett. No one was injured.

A police officer wrote in a report at the time that it took the man more than two minutes to try to pull his driver’s license and proof of insurance from his wallet.

Sedy was sentenced to a year in jail with all but two days suspended. He was allowed to serve that time at an alternate confinement program at the fairgrounds in Monroe.

After the bail hearing Thursday, Janice Stivers described her daughter, 26, as a funny and organized person with a quick smile and big plans. She was working her way through college. She wanted to become an accountant and had started a retirement account.

Stivers vowed to work to toughen vehicular homicide sentencing guidelines, which she said are among the most lenient in the country. The standard sentencing range for vehicular homicide in Washington state is 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 years for people without significant criminal history.

“This is the real travesty of justice when the offender is given a basic slap on the wrist while the victims and their families suffer daily for the rest of their lives,” she said.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.