Despite efforts by Raul Benitez Santana’s defense team to persuade a Snohomish County Superior Court judge to impose a sentence of just under eight years in prison for the 2024 high-speed crash that killed State Patrol Trooper Christopher Gadd, the judge said the facts of the case warranted a high-end sentence.
“You were traveling at over 100 miles an hour for a length of time. You endangered everyone on the roadway, from Mount Vernon to Everett,” Judge Karen Moore told Benitez Santana, 34, during his Wednesday sentencing hearing. “I’ve driven that a million times … I know that stretch of road.”
Though Benitez Santana didn’t intend to kill Gadd, who was with the Washington State Patrol for 2 ½ years and worked out of Marysville, Moore said driving at high speed while impaired by alcohol and marijuana was akin to pointing a loaded gun at someone.
She sentenced Benitez Santana to just under 10 ½ years in prison, the highest sentence she could impose under the state’s standard sentencing guidelines; she also ordered him not to consume alcohol or drugs during the 18 months he'll be on community supervision after his release.
Several members of the State Patrol, Everett Police Department and Snohomish County sheriff’s office attended the hearing in uniform, including Gadd’s father, Trooper David Gadd. State Patrol Chief John Batiste, in a dark suit, sat in the front row.
“I do believe that you’re sorry, for what that’s worth. And I think that it is exceptionally gracious that the (Gadd) family is willing to walk out of here without hatred in their hearts,” Moore told Benitez Santana. “So do your time, focus on the things to make things right to the extent you can.”
Gadd, 27, was parked on the right shoulder of southbound Interstate 5 near the Stimson Road overpass, performing speed enforcement in his State Patrol SUV, when Benitez Santana, driving a GMC Denali, slammed into the rear of Gadd’s vehicle just before 3 a.m. on March 2, 2024. The force of the impact pushed Gadd’s patrol vehicle forward, into a ditch, and caused the Denali to rotate across the southbound lanes, where it was struck moments later by a van, injuring the driver.
During trial, prosecutors successfully argued that Benitez Santana’s perception was severely compromised, so much so that he thought the shoulder was a lane of travel. A jury last month found Benitez Santana guilty of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault and returned special verdicts that he was driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Benitez Santana is in the U.S. illegally. His attorneys attempted to get the charges dismissed because prosecutors communicated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in violation of state law.
Though Benitez Santana’s immigration status wasn’t explicitly discussed Wednesday, defense attorney Emily Hancock, who represented him alongside Tiffany Mecca, told the judge Benitez Santana came to the U.S. as a 6-month-old baby. He grew up in Burien, worked in his family’s auto body shop and moved to Everett shortly before the fatal crash.
“When Raul was 16, he learned something about his identity that changed what opportunities would be available to him and how he would be seen amongst his community members and other members of Washington state,” said Hancock, in apparent reference to Benitez Sanchez's immigration status.
A father of three, Hancock said, Benitez Santana has been in daily contact with his children and has taken parenting and other classes while in jail. She said Benitez Santana was “absolutely remorseful” but had been instructed not to show any emotion during trial because his every expression would be scrutinized by jurors, members of the media and other courtroom attendees. Hancock also said Benitez Santana had been advised not to exercise his right to speak during sentencing because it could impact his appeal.
Deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow acknowledged that Benitez Santana doesn’t have prior felony convictions but said he has convictions for low-level offenses dating to 2009 and was on a deferred prosecution for one of those cases when Gadd was killed.
“There’s a certain degree of just carelessness toward the community that was exhibited in his driving” and decision to mix alcohol and marijuana and drive at “gratuitous” speed, Darrow said. “The road was wide open and there’s no evidence he needed to get anywhere at 3 in the morning.
“This suggests he was just casually endangering the public and that really bothers me, in addition to, of course, the terrible results that occurred in this case,” he said.
Darrow told the judge the state will be seeking roughly $60,000 in restitution from Benitez Santana — about $10,000 on behalf of the Department of Transportation for damage to a post and the roadway and $48,000 to cover the cost of Gadd’s destroyed patrol vehicle.
Gadd’s wife, Cammryn Gadd, was overcome by tears so a victim’s advocate read aloud a statement she had prepared. She said Gadd, her best friend for nine years and her husband for four, was a firefighter and EMT before becoming a trooper, and described him as a kind and gentle soul.
The couple’s daughter, who was 2 when Gadd was killed, “blows her daddy a kiss in heaven every night,” the advocate read, but only knows him through photos, videos and stories told by people who knew her father. The couple never got to finish building their family or fulfill their dream of owning a ranch house with enough room for a chicken coop, garden and cow, according to Cammryn Gadd’s statement.
Cammryn Gadd sat through every hearing and day of trial, and said her husband was passionate about keeping the roadways safe.
“Chris did his job that night. He got one more dangerous driver off the road.”
Gadd is the 33rd member of the State Patrol killed in the line of duty in the agency’s 104-year history and the sixth during Batiste’s tenure as chief. Outside the courtroom, Batiste said his “heart aches” for the Gadd family, his State Patrol family and himself.
“The Gadd family has suffered so much. When we say we’ll never forget, we mean it,” he said.
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