LAKE STEVENS — A Granite Falls man has been charged with driving while high on cannabis for a Thanksgiving day crash that left one man dead and another injured.
Ryan Kynaston, 36, was charged last week with one count of vehicular homicide while under the influence and one count of vehicular assault.
Around 1:30 p.m. Nov. 24, 2022, Kynaston was driving east on Highway 92 in a black Chevy Silverado, according to Lake Stevens police. The defendant, suspected of being under the influence of marijuana and alcohol, crossed the double yellow center line and collided into a Lexus driving west, charging papers say.
Police arrived to find two men who had been in the Lexus were severely injured. Bradley Gilbert, 52, was outside the passenger seat with a witness performing CPR on him, the charges say.
Bradley Gilbert, of Lake Stevens, died at the scene of several blunt force trauma injuries to his head and torso, according to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Gilbert’s brother Robert Gilbert, who was in the driver’s seat, was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett with an open femur fracture and “numerous internal fractures,” the charges say. He was later transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and remained in rehabilitation as of Friday, according to court documents.
Police found Kynaston lying against the road’s guardrail near his pickup. An officer reported he smelled like alcohol and had bloodshot watery eyes. Kynaston reportedly told the officer he remembered driving the truck, but did not remember how the collision happened.
Kynaston was transported to Providence Regional with minor injuries. He reportedly told officers he had two beers while playing golf that morning. A toxicology report found no alcohol present in a blood sample taken four hours after the crash, but there were 8.3 nanograms of active THC, according to court documents. The legal limit in Washington for marijuana use while driving is 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood.
On March 23, police obtained a search warrant to investigate Kynaston’s truck. Two beer cans fell out of the pickup as officers opened the driver’s door, the charges say. They also found rolled joints “which smelled like marijuana” on the floorboard, and empty packages of cannabis oil in the center console.
The defendant had no felony convictions in the past decade.
Kynaston was out of custody at the time he was charged. The court mailed a summons notifying him of an arraignment hearing in May. Prosecutors plan to request bail at $75,000. Kynaston previously posted the same bail amount shortly after his arrest in November.
Court records do not list a defense attorney for Kynaston.
Maya Tizon; 425-339-3434; maya.tizon@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @mayatizon.
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