Kent man sentenced to prison for fiery January crash that killed a Bellingham woman

A Kent, Washington, man will spend nearly a decade in prison after he hit a 49-year-old Bellingham woman’s vehicle in January, causing it to immediately burst into flames, resulting in her death.

Teofilo Garcia Uribe, 37, was sentenced Tuesday morning in Whatcom County Superior Court to nine years and two months in prison, with a year and a half of probation for the Jan. 6 death of Tarria K. Conger.

Uribe pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide by way of reckless driving. He was previously charged Jan. 9 with one count of vehicular homicide and one count of hit-and-run of a fatality accident, both felonies, according to court records.

The hit-and-run charge was dropped as part of an agreed upon recommended sentence for Uribe.

The prosecutor and Uribe’s public defense attorney presented the recommended sentence of 110 months in prison at Uribe’s sentencing hearing Tuesday morning. Uribe’s standard range for his conviction was nearly eight years at the lowest end and 10 1/2 years at the highest end.

Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Lee Grochmal said Uribe’s standard range was high, but added that it was because there was a level of recklessness involved in the crime that ultimately resulted in the death of another person.

Grochmal said Uribe accepted responsibility for his actions very quickly. While eight months between when the case was filed to when it was resolved may not seem like a short time for people impacted by the case, Grochmal said it was compared to the length of time it takes other cases to resolve.

“Uribe taking responsibility at eight months is a benefit to the family to be able to put some closure on this and to have some resolution. I credit Mr. Uribe for taking responsibility. It appears he has a great deal of remorse over what happened, not just for himself but for the family of the victim,” Grochmal said Tuesday before following the agreed recommendation and sentencing Uribe to nearly a decade in prison.

“It’s a long time in prison for something that was not intentional, although it was clearly reckless,” Grochmal said.

As part of Uribe’s sentence, he will not be allowed to possess or consume alcohol. His driver’s license will also be revoked for two years following his release from prison.

Restitution is not being sought in the case.

Uribe’s “sentence was deemed appropriate for his actions. He wasn’t given much of a break, if at all, and has taken responsibility for his actions here pretty quickly,” Whatcom County senior deputy prosecuting attorney Kellen Kooistra said after the hearing.

Here’s what happened

Around 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 6, Bellingham police responded to the intersection of Meridian Street and East Kellogg Road for a vehicle collision involving a car on fire.

While officers were en route, they were advised that city traffic cameras captured footage of a white Dodge Ram colliding into a red Saturn Ion, which was on fire in the intersection. Uribe was later identified as the driver of the Dodge Ram, while Conger was identified as the driver of the Saturn Ion, according to police and court records.

Both Uribe and Conger were traveling southbound on Meridian Street at the time of the collision. City traffic cameras showed Uribe driving the Dodge Ram at a high rate of speed consistent with highway speeds before rear-ending Conger’s Saturn Ion with enough force to push the Ion from the 4300 block to the 4200 block of Meridian Street — more than 100 yards, court records show.

Once Uribe’s truck hit Conger’s car, the car immediately burst into flames. Uribe continued to push Conger’s car — while it burned — until his truck reached the intersection with East Kellogg Road. Uribe was then seen by city traffic cameras and nearby witnesses leaving the scene at a high rate of speed onto East Kellogg Road, court records state.

Conger was the sole occupant of the Saturn Ion. She became trapped inside and probable cause for vehicular homicide was established due to the extent of destruction and damage caused to the person by the flames inside the vehicle, the records show.

Whatcom County Sheriff’s deputies found the Dodge Ram in the 700 block of East Kellogg Road and stopped the vehicle. The driver, who was identified as Uribe, exited the vehicle and was detained seconds later.

Uribe admitted to sheriff’s deputies that he had been drinking. When a Bellingham police officer arrived, the officer noticed Uribe’s eyes were watery and bloodshot and the officer could smell a strong odor of alcohol coming from Uribe’s breath, according to court records.

Uribe declined to take voluntary field sobriety tests.

A witness from a nearby gas station was brought to the scene and positively identified Uribe as the driver of the Dodge Ram that hit the Saturn Ion driven by Conger, the court records state.

Uribe was then arrested without incident.

He has been incarcerated in the Whatcom County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail since his Jan. 7 arrest, court and jail records show.

Presentence report

In a presentence and mitigation report submitted to the court, Uribe’s public defense attorney Shoshanah Epstein wrote that Uribe grew up in California as the son of immigrant farm workers from Mexico.

He was recruited by a gang at 9 years old, and was attracted to the social support he received, Epstein wrote.

In an interview done with Uribe for the presentence report, Uribe said he had limited choices during his childhood and felt there were little to no other options for him at the time. He said his parents were hardworking, loving and dedicated to the family and their occupations, but were unaccustomed to “gang life” and believed “tough love” was the approach that would correct Uribe’s behavior.

“You don’t say no to the gang. You have to go with the flow to survive,” Uribe said, according to the report.

Uribe spent much of his childhood and adolescent years incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities and did not participate in school past age 14. The last school he attended was an elementary school in South Lake Tahoe, California, the report states.

Uribe’s siblings helped him relocate to Washington state within the past couple years, following his most recent release from prison in California. Uribe said he wanted a “fresh start.” He got a job working for a concrete contractor, was sober and was reconnecting with family, according to the report. Uribe later met and married his wife, who was based in Whatcom County.

In interviews with Uribe’s family, they described Uribe as a good person who would always help family, friends and strangers, sometimes to his own detriment. Uribe’s family said they noticed a difference in him almost immediately following his relocation to Washington. They said it was clear he was serious about wanting to change his life, the report states.

On Jan. 6, Uribe met his wife at a bar in Ferndale. There, he got into a fight with other patrons and was later thrown out. He then tried to drive home, but instead crashed into Conger’s vehicle, killing her.

Uribe had “no intention of harming anyone, and regrets making the decisions he did that led to his preventable crash,” Epstein, his defense attorney, wrote.

“He deeply regrets the pain that he has caused to [Conger’s] surviving family,” Epstein wrote in the report. “He realizes at this time there is nothing he can do to bring Tarria Conger back or to make things right. Although it may be small comfort, he also will live with this memory for the rest of his life.”