Bobbi Jo Kubo of Everett testified that she felt “completely fine” while driving on a wet, two-lane road between Lynnwood and Everett.
A Snohomish County Superior Court jury disagreed.
The panel Friday convicted her of vehicular homicide for causing a fatal chain-reaction accident Nov. 17 in the 13800 block of Meadow Road.
Kubo, 35, stands to spend between 21/2 and 31/2 years in prison when Judge Ellen Fair sentences her June 28.
Kubo, who works in a dental lab, started a series of accidents when her vehicle, driven at high speed, sideswiped an oncoming Dodge Intrepid containing Joe and Jane Nishikawa, 71.
Kubo had attempted to pass a Jeep Liberty, which also had been racing southbound ahead of Kubo’s Ford Ranger, and her vehicle was partly in the southbound lane at the time of the collision with the Nishikawa vehicle.
The Nishikawas’ car fishtailed and came to rest sideways in Meadow Road.
A third car, a Chevrolet Camaro, had been following Kubo and the Jeep at high speed and plowed into the side of the Intrepid, killing Jane Nishikawa.
All the occupants of the three northbound vehicles had been drinking moments before at a local bar, according to testimony. Kubo attempted to pass in a no-passing zone where there was a dip in the road and limited sight visibility.
Two hours after the collision, Kubo’s blood-alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit, deputy prosecutor Joan Cavagnaro said. There also was medical evidence that she had recently consumed marijuana.
The driver that plowed into the Nishikawas’ Intrepid earlier pleaded guilty to drunken driving. The driver of the Jeep also has been charged with vehicular homicide but has not been prosecuted. A bench warrant has been issued for him because he failed to show up for a hearing.
Kubo, another woman in her Ranger, and the two men in the Jeep and Camaro had been playing pool and drinking. Two of the vehicles were following the Jeep, which was traveling “really fast,” Kubo testified.
She told the jury she wanted to get ahead of the Jeep to make it slow down, and said that attempt was a “big mistake.”
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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