Centralia Man Pleads Guilty to Injury-Inducing Car Chase

A Centralia man accused in August of leading a state trooper on a chase down Interstate 5 that left a passenger seriously injured pleaded guilty in Lewis County Superior Court Tuesday.

Stuart A. Acosta, 24, has been in the Lewis County Jail since Aug. 2. In a hearing Tuesday afternoon with his legal counsel Christopher Baum, Acosta pleaded guilty to most of the charges prosecutors leveled against him, and will face a sentencing hearing 9:45 a.m. Sept. 26 in Lewis County Superior Court Department 3 with Judge Joely O’Rourke presiding.

In his most recent active case, Acosta pleaded guilty to felony counts of vehicular assault, attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle and hit and run, as well as misdemeanor counts of driving with a suspended license, reckless endangerment in a construction zone and failing to identify himself.

In a separate 2017 case, Acosta pleaded guilty to felony harassment — threat to kill.

In exchange for the plea, a single count of second-degree assault attached to the 2017 case was dismissed.

Acosta was arrested August 2 after leading a Washington State Patrol Trooper on a vehicle chase on I-5 in Lewis County that surpassed speeds of 100 miles per hour. According to court documents, Acosta was spotted driving northbound on the busy roadway through a lane marked off with orange construction barrels.

A motorist also pointed out the vehicle to a parked state trooper as the perpetrator of a hit and run.

When the trooper tried to pull the SUV over, a chase ensued. Although court documents don’t reference where it started, they do indicate that it ended on the milepost 88 exit ramp in Thurston County, where Acosta lost control of his vehicle. The SUV rolled and came to a rest on its hood.

The front passenger in the vehicle sustained a serious laceration to the forehead. Court documents describe the injury, saying it “appears from the photos that a portion of (the passenger’s) scalp was detached from his skull.”

Acosta appeared intoxicated — demonstrating slurred speech and bloodshot, watery eyes — but did not immediately identify himself to the trooper. A passenger in the vehicle provided the trooper with Acosta’s name.

At the time, there was an active warrant for Acosta’s arrest, stemming from an incident over two years earlier.

In May 2016, Acosta and two other males allegedly twice confronted and harassed a man, according to authorities. One of Acosta’s cohorts threatened the man with a knife, the victim told authorities. The victim fled his attackers.

Later that day, the original victim and his girlfriend were confronted by the three men in the Safeway parking lot. One of the three suspects — not Acosta — slapped the woman in the face.

The victim said he knew Acosta and one of the other men from an earlier encounter at a gas station.

“Apparently the two suspects did not like the fact (the victim) wore red clothing which he believed was a gang thing,” read court documents.

Acosta was charged in the 2016 harassment in 2017.