TACOMA — Forgiveness was publicly granted Friday to a man who crashed his car into a tree east of Enumclaw after leaving a bonfire party, killing a friend and seriously injuring himself and three others.
Bryson Stubbles, 18, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and three counts of vehicular assault for the Oct. 2 crash that killed 18-year-old Paco Malek Frees. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
Frees’ mother and father, Sia and Ryan Hills, stood in court Friday and told Stubbles the family forgives him. So did Tristan Hedrick, one of the passengers hurt in the wreck.
“My heart goes out to you. It really, really does,” Ryan Hills said during the hearing. “If I could let you walk right now, I would. But, the law is the law. Go in there, do your time and get out.”
Stubbles appeared emotional, saying at one point he’s grateful “they’re gracious enough to forgive me.”
The group of friends left a gathering about 2:30 a.m. and were driving west on state Route 410 between Enumclaw and Greenwater when Stubbles lost control of his Honda Accord, swerved off the road and hit a tree.
No other vehicles were involved.
Frees died in the crash. Stubbles and one of his passengers, a 16-year-old girl with a fractured pelvis, were airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
A 20-year-old Spanaway man broke his wrist, femur, back and pelvis. An 18-year-old Puyallup man broke his femur and a bone in his hand.
Stubbles had a can of malt liquor and three shots of rum at the bonfire, court records show. He told Washington State Patrol troopers he was chatting with his passengers when the car drifted onto the shoulder, he overcorrected, hit a pothole and lost control of the Honda.
