Portland woman sentenced to 8 years in drunk-driving crash that killed two passengers

A Portland woman was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison for a drunken-driving crash that killed her two passengers in November on state Highway 500 in Vancouver.

Mickleen Daniel, 20, pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court to vehicular homicide and reckless driving. In her plea statement, she said her blood-alcohol content was 0.11. In Washington, a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 is considered evidence of drunken driving.

Daniel was arrested about 2 a.m. Nov. 5 after her Infiniti QX56 crashed through a guardrail on the highway and landed on its top on Thurston Way. One of her passengers, Jayson Jimmy, 23, of Portland, was found dead. Another, Kamina Asimi, 21, of Portland, was ejected from the vehicle, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Emergency responders cut Daniel out of the driver’s seat and transported her and Asimi to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, where Asimi died from her injuries. A jail pre-booking sheet stated Daniel suffered a broken back and road rash.

Washington State Patrol troopers said they smelled alcohol on Daniel and that her eyes appeared bloodshot and watery. Daniel said she had consumed one or two shots of alcohol, investigators said, according to the affidavit.

Asimi’s mother, Ameca Bingham, wrote a victim impact statement to the court about the pain of losing her daughter, who was also a mother.

“I am very sad, very depressed and very angry. I have a right to feel all of this; my daughter is now gone,” Bingham wrote. “The hardest thing to say is I don’t hate you. But I am extremely upset and very disappointed in you and your actions and what they have done.”