A 29-year-old woman who fled Milton police in a stolen car earlier this year and then crashed, decapitating a passenger in the backseat and injuring another, has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
Maegan Elizabeth Wentz pleaded guilty Thursday in Pierce County Superior Court to DUI vehicular homicide and third-degree assault for the March 6 incident on Milton Way. Jayson C. Owens of Edgewood, 49, died in the wreck. Wentz admitted to being under the influence of methamphetamine when the incident occurred.
Wentz was driving a 2005 Ford sedan that night when a Milton Police Department officer noticed the car pass him, according to charging documents. The officer found the vehicle had been stolen from Tacoma a week earlier, then parked his patrol car behind it at a convenience store in Edgewood.
The officer told Wentz to shut off the car, records state. Instead, she backed out of a parking spot and went west on Milton Way. The officer followed her through an intersection, but he stopped pursuing her because Wentz was driving recklessly “at an extremely high rate of speed,” according to charging documents. At about 9:55 p.m., the officer reported over the radio that the sedan had crashed into a guardrail at a curve.
Police observed three people trying to run from the wreck. One escaped, records state, and Wentz and another woman were detained. The Ford reportedly had heavy damage to its front end and passenger’s side. Two men were still in the backseat. One was stuck due to his injuries, and records state the other, Owens, was obviously deceased.
Wentz had a head injury, and the man who survived the crash suffered a lacerated spleen and four broken bones, according to court records. The other woman went to a hospital but was discharged without injuries.
The defendant initially told police she hadn’t been driving and said she had swallowed three fentanyl pills. At the hospital, she reportedly told a nurse she took five to six fentanyl pills right before she began driving the car, then said she was a passenger. One of the passengers also told police that she and the other occupants of the car had been drinking alcohol and smoking fentanyl, meth and Xanax just before fleeing from police.
Wentz’ blood was drawn for toxicology testing, but results were not included in court records. However, as part of her sentence, she was ordered to not consume alcohol, marijuana or non-prescribed drugs. She will also be evaluated for substance-abuse treatment.
The punishment Judge Pro Tempore James Orlando imposed was at the low end of the standard sentencing range, which was 86-114 months, and it was in line with what prosecutors agreed to recommend. Wentz had no prior felony convictions.
Prosecutors amended Wentz’ charges before she pleaded guilty, records show, dropping charges of unlawful possession of a stolen vehicle and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle. Deputy prosecuting attorney Elizabeth Dasse wrote in court filings that the change accounted for Wentz’ age and lack of criminal history.
