A food and grocery CEO was charged Thursday after a boat crash left a 21-year-old Olympia man with life-threatening injuries.
After a boating collision in Thurston County's Boston Harbor Marina in early May, Justin James Erickson, was charged with assault by watercraft and leaving the scene of a vessel accident, according to court documents.
Erickson, 51, is the CEO of Harbor Wholesale, a food and grocery distributor headquartered in Lacey, and Washington's third-largest family-owned company.
According to charging documents filed Thursday in Thurston County Superior Court, around 7:45 p.m. May 3, Thurston County deputies and detectives responded to the collision at Boston Harbor Marina, just north of Olympia.
Deputies found a 300 horsepower 25-foot Cobalt had crashed into a smaller 10-foot boat at high speed, critically injuring a passenger on the smaller boat, according to field reports from the deputies.
The Cobalt was carrying seven people, while the smaller boat held five. Erickson was identified by passengers as the boat's operator, and witnesses say the Cobalt picked someone up from the shore and was leaving the marina going 35-45 mph in a no wake zone in the moments before the crash.
Erickson said he was only going around 15 mph, with the sun setting in his eyes and thought he struck a log rather than another boat, according to court documents.
Witnesses said multiple paddleboarders and onlookers yelled at the boat to slow down, and that individuals in the boat were yelling back and made hand gestures to people on the shore, according to court documents.
A passenger in the smaller boat said one of their engines died right before the crash and he was trying to restart it when he noticed the Cobalt speeding toward them. Three of the passengers jumped in the water. The engine was knocked into the water after the impact, according to a Thurston County detective.
After the collision, witnesses said the boat did not stop, but slowly returned to the scene about 10 minutes later.
Deputies did not observe any alcoholic beverages on the boat, but did observe occasional alcoholic smells near Erickson and his attorney on land, but could not identify with certainty which individual the odor was from, according to court documents. Erickson declined to conduct voluntary field sobriety tests.
Of the five people in the smaller boat, Olympia man Jack Edwards suffered the most serious injuries from the collision and was transported to St. Peters Hospital in Olympia, and later to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Edwards suffered a broken elbow, scapula, femur, multiple large lacerations to his back and collapsed lung, according to his doctor at St. Peters Hospital. His mother told the Olympian he went home a week and a half after the crash.
A fundraiser was started for the man, and has raised over $30,000 as of Friday evening.
Any of you that know my son know that he an amazing young man," wrote Jessica Edwards, Jack's mother and the organizer of the fundraiser. "He loves the outdoors, skate boarding, his brothers and his job.
Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney Jon Tunheim recused his office from the case, citing a personal relationship with Erickson, as reported by the Olympian. Pierce County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Aaron Dickinson is now the lead attorney handling the case.
If Erickson is convicted, the maximum penalty for assault by watercraft is 10 years in prison, a $20,000 fine, or both. The penalty for leaving the scene of a vessel accident is 5 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both, according to the charging document.
His arraignment date has not yet been released.
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