Man sentenced to 23 years in prison for second vehicular homicide conviction in 9 years

TACOMA, Wash. -- A Pierce County man was sentenced Friday to 23 years in prison for his second vehicular homicide conviction in nine years.

Jacob Skylar Allyn Lee, now 27, had been convicted of vehicular homicide in 2009; he was sentenced in 2010 to three and a half years in prison.

Then, in September 2016, Washington State Patrol troopers received a call reporting a car in a ditch and a man standing on the side of the road with a bloody face and shirt on State Route 7 just south of 304th, near Graham. It was Lee, who had suffered a severe injury to his left arm.

Lee asked a deputy applying first aid to check for another person, stating that he thought another person was in the vehicle with him, and he didn't know whether he had dropped that person off before the accident.

Troopers followed tire tracks and found the body of Christopher Grice, 36.

"He had suffered significant trauma to his head and neck," the prosecutor's office said of Grice, who apparently had not been wearing his seat belt and had been ejected from the vehicle during the accident.

Authorities said Lee's Jeep Cherokee left the roadway at a high rate of speed and hit a  deep ditch embankment, the force of which ejected Grice.

Lab tests revealed the presence of alcohol, cannabinoids, and methamphetamine in Lee's blood, the prosecutor's office said.

Lee was found guilty of vehicular homicide in February 2018 by a Pierce County Superior Court judge.

In court for the sentencing Friday, Grice's mother said, “My son’s life was taken. I felt like mine was, too. He had the biggest heart. He’d give you the shirt off his back and his last dollar.”

In the previous case, Lee was sentenced for one count of vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault after an Aug. 29, 2009, crash on the Sumner-Buckley Highway when Lee lost control of his vehicle, which rolled several times and slammed into a number of trees.

One of his passengers was killed and two other passengers suffered broken arms and internal injuries.