A Snohomish County Superior Court jury Tuesday acquitted a Monroe man of one charge and deadlocked on a second related to a December traffic crash in which his best friend was killed.
The jury deliberated most of Tuesday before announcing the verdict in the case of Eizu Elijah Fredrickson, 23.
Jurors acquitted him of a felony charge of hit-and-run with a fatality in the death of Phillip Stone, 21, also of Monroe. Stone had been a passenger in a car that crashed on a sharp curve on Woods Creek Road.
Jurors also told Judge George Bowden they could not reach a unanimous verdict on a second charge of vehicular homicide. Jurors said they were split 10-2 in favor of acquittal.
Deputy prosecutor Joan Cavagnaro said she doesn’t know now whether her office will try Fredrickson again for vehicular homicide.
Defense attorney Pete Mazzone was elated.
"There was no evidence," Mazzone said.
On Monday, Fredrickson sat in front of the jury and told the panel he didn’t remember what happened in the hours just before and after his 1988 Subaru station wagon left the road and slammed into a tree.
He also told jurors he didn’t remember leaving Stone dead or dying in the vehicle.
It was an unusual case in which the defendant suffered a bump on the head in the crash, and it apparently impaired his memory. After the accident, Fredrickson walked nearly nine miles along dark, rural roads before he was almost run over and then given a ride.
Later the morning of Dec. 7, Fredrickson talked to police after he reported his Subaru stolen. He told officers he had driven Stone home.
Police countered that his friend was found dead in the passenger seat of his vehicle. Deputies questioned him about how much he had to drink at a party the previous evening.
"I didn’t know what to think, because what they were saying was different than what I remembered," Fredrickson told jurors. "It didn’t make any sense."
Deputy prosecutor Cavagnaro told jurors they should have reason to disbelieve Fredrickson. The man who picked him up on that dark road testified that the defendant told him he had been a carjacking victim and wound up in a ditch.
She said Fredrickson was either impaired by the drinks he had that night, or he fell asleep while driving and went straight off the road on the curve. She also told jurors that he had an obligation to immediately report the accident and severe injury of his friend.
But Mazzone maintained the state had not proved its case.
The state needs "proof beyond a reasonable doubt, not suspicion," Mazzone said.
He brought in photos of the dark curve, where the county since the accident has put up reflectors to warn drivers, adding: "Apparently somebody doesn’t think that road is as safe as they did on Dec. 7, 2002."
As for leaving the accident and not reporting it, Mazzone asked jurors if Fredrickson sounded like someone who really had his wits about him after the bump on the head.
The death was a tragedy, but "if you’re true to yourself and you’re honest with yourself, you’ll have to sit back and ask yourself if (the state’s case) has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt," Mazzone told jurors.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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