A Vancouver man was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison for a fatal crash in November in south-central Lewis County.
Jonathon K. Reno, 42, pleaded guilty in Lewis County Superior Court on Jan. 6 to one count of vehicular homicide.
Police say he was intoxicated at the time of the crash that killed his passenger, Adam W. Newstrom, 28.
Reno’s 20-year sentence was a result of changes in vehicular homicide sentencing guidelines that went into effect in 2012 and his extensive criminal history, said Brad Meagher, Lewis County’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor.
The new guidelines nearly doubled the potential sentence for those convicted of vehicular homicide, Meagher said.
Reno also has six previous felony convictions, three prior driving-while-intoxicated convictions and a reckless driving conviction, Meagher said. He was convicted of attempted vehicular assault in 2006, possession of a controlled substance in 1990 and 2003, bail jumping in 2000, burglary in 1993 and delivery of a controlled substance in 1992, Meagher said.
Reno was driving a 1991 Honda Accord south on Jackson Highway at a high rate of speed at about 7 p.m. Nov. 10 when the car struck a guardrail and crossed the centerline near Ray Road, two miles south of the small city of Toledo, according to Washington State Patrol.
The Honda’s front passenger side then struck a power pole before coming to rest in a ditch.
Neither Reno nor Newstrom wore a seat belt, said State Patrol Trooper Will Finn.
