A 24-year-old Lakewood man who got behind the wheel after drinking at a catering job, then ran a red light in Tacoma, killing a husband and wife in a collision, was sentenced Thursday to nearly three years in prison.
Carlos Alejandro Rodriguez pleaded guilty Feb. 7 to two counts of vehicular homicide for the Aug. 7, 2021 wreck in the city's South End, at the intersection of South 72nd Street and Yakima Avenue. James Wagner, 63, and his wife, Joylene Rae Miller-Wagner, were killed in the incident when their sedan was struck on the passenger's side by the car Rodriguez was driving at 83 mph.
The couple's dog, Snoopy, also perished in the crash, according to prosecutors.
One of Wagner's daughters wrote in a victim impact statement to the court that her father and stepmother had just celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary the day before the wreck. Her father was decapitated, she wrote, and every bone in her stepmother's body was broken. She said she still can't talk about them without crying.
"A lifetime in jail wouldn't be enough justice, two years definitely isn't," she wrote. "It feels like a slap in the face to their families. Because of Carlos's actions that night and carelessness, our lives will never be the same."
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Karena Kirkendoll handed down the punishment, giving Rodriguez 34 months, the high end of the standard sentencing range for defendants prosecuted in similar cases, eight months longer than prosecutors had agreed to recommend.
Rodriguez's blood-alcohol content was recorded as 0.013 by a portable breath test about two hours after the collision, according to court records. He told responding Tacoma Police Department officers he had two to three margaritas while catering a birthday party in Tacoma with his father, and he added additional alcohol to the drinks.
The driver also stopped at a marijuana dispensary after the men left the job at about 11 p.m. Rodriguez claimed not to have smoked any of the cannabis he bought, but a blood draw showed his THC level was about 11 nanograms per milliliter, above the legal limit of 5 ng/ml.
Rodriguez's 51-year-old father was in the passenger's seat of the 2017 Nissan Altima his son was driving, and he was badly injured in the crash, according to court records. Tacoma General Hospital staff told police he suffered severe hemorrhaging.
The defendant was charged with vehicular assault for his father's injuries, but it was dismissed as part of a plea agreement, court records show.
A friend was also in the Nissan, which was registered to him. He told police he felt like he drank too much so he let Rodriguez drive. The defendant was speeding the entire time, the friend reportedly told police, and he was asked to slow down multiple times.
Rodriguez did not initially take responsibility for the collision. Prosecutors wrote in court filings that witnesses saw him trying to coerce his friend into taking responsibility shortly after they walked away from their wrecked vehicle. Rodriguez also told a police officer he was sitting in the back passenger seat, but the officer noted his injuries were consistent with a person sitting in the driver's seat.
The vehicular homicide case went to trial in September, with Rodriguez's defense being that the friend was driving. His former attorney wrote in a trial brief that body-camera footage showed the friend consistently telling a police officer and hospital staff that he was driving, not Rodriguez.
A mistrial was declared after a four-day trial and about two days of deliberations, according to court records. Jurors were deadlocked over a verdict.
A new trial was scheduled, but Rodriguez pleaded guilty about a week before it was set to begin. Prosecutors wrote in court filings that based on feedback from jurors in the first trial, there were evidence issues in the case that gave the state concern that a retrial would end in the same result, if not an acquittal.
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