Jurors found a Vancouver man guilty Friday morning of vehicular homicide in a 2014 sequence of crashes on Interstate 205 that led to the death of a good Samaritan.
Joshua C. Frahm hung his head as the verdict was handed down in Clark County Superior Court. It was his 30th birthday.
His two-week trial concluded Thursday afternoon, and jurors deliberated for about five hours before finding him guilty on all counts, including vehicular assault, hit-and-run, false reporting and first-degree conspiracy to commit perjury.
“It was a difficult case, very tragic, affected a lot of lives,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu said afterward. “We’re glad that the jury was able to look at the totality of all of the evidence in this case and rendered a just verdict.”
Frahm was driving a white Ford F-150 pickup north on the highway near Burton Road just before 6 a.m. Dec. 7, 2014, when he rear-ended a northbound Honda CRV driven by Steven M. Klase of Battle Ground. He neither stopped nor reported the collision.
The impact catapulted the CRV across all northbound lanes, where it crashed into the highway’s center concrete median and stopped in the left northbound lane.
Richard G. Irvine, who also was driving north, saw the collision, stopped and parked his vehicle on the right shoulder. He ran to the CRV and called 911. While he was on the phone with dispatchers, a northbound Honda Odyssey minivan driven by Fredy Delacruz-Moreno of Portland struck the passenger side of the CRV and pushed it into Irvine.
The 63-year-old man suffered serious injuries and later died at a Vancouver hospice facility. Klase suffered a broken leg and fractured spine.
In addition to finding Frahm guilty on all counts, the jury also found that he had been driving under the influence and recklessly, in connection with the vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges.
Frahm had been out drinking the night before and morning of the crash, the prosecution said, and multiple witnesses reported seeing the Ford F-150 driving erratically on state Highway 14 and I-205 just before the hit-and-run crash.
During the trial, Vu argued that Frahm’s driving was a proximate cause of Irvine’s death, which means the death was a natural, direct, uninterrupted consequence of Frahm’s actions, without which the death would not have occurred. Vu said Frahm’s driving did not need to be the sole cause in order for him to be convicted of vehicular homicide.
Frahm’s defense attorney, Jeff Barrar, argued that his client’s actions may have played a role but said that it was Delacruz-Moreno’s negligence that caused Irvine’s death.
“I’m very disappointed for my client. He is obviously looking at a considerable amount of (prison) time,” Barrar said. “But, I accept the jury’s verdict.
“Nobody means to hurt anybody in cases like this. It’s tough,” he added. “Mr. Irvine paid the ultimate price. Even if (Frahm) hadn’t been found guilty, there’s no winners here.”
Frahm is potentially facing 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced June 6.
After the verdict was handed down, the attorneys met with the jury, privately, for about an hour.
Washington State Patrol spokesman Trooper Will Finn said the agency, which investigated the crashes, is pleased with the outcome of the trial.
He said WSP appreciates all of the people who reported Frahm’s erratic driving and the crashes.
“Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are today, which is finding a conviction for someone who committed this crime and fled,” Finn said.
“It’s a sad situation all the way around,” he added. “We hope that lessons can be learned here, and it doesn’t happen again.”
