Man accused of head-on crash in Mason County had been released from jail four days before despite felony warrant

A 31-year-old Bremerton man blamed for a head-on crash Sunday that left him and two others severely injured had been released four days earlier from the Kitsap County Jail despite having a felony theft warrant from Clallam County.

The Washington State Patrol reported that at about 12:30 p.m., Ronnie D. Smeland II was driving a 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis on the wrong side of Highway 300 near Belfair when he struck a 2013 Ford Escape carrying a woman, 30, and man, 27, from Gig Harbor. The wreck closed the highway for about 4 ½ hours.

An online baby registry says the two people Smeland is accused of injuring are a couple and the woman is pregnant with a due date in September.

Smeland was not wearing a seat belt. He was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for his injuries. As of Wednesday, he remains in critical condition.

The woman Smeland is accused of injuring was also taken to Harborview. As of Wednesday, she was listed in serious condition, according to a hospital spokesperson. The man in the car Smeland hit was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma.

In February, while lodged in the Kitsap County Jail for charges including drunken driving and driving on a suspended license, court records show Smeland was accused of biting a corrections officer during a scuffle. The scuffle started when Smeland slammed a telephone receiver against the wall and refused to return to his cell.

He pleaded guilty a month later to a count of third-degree assault. Though he faced up to a year in jail, Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Bill Houser sentenced him to five months. He was released May 25, according to Kitsap County Sheriff's Office records.

At the time of his sentencing, records show Smeland was facing a two-year-old second-degree theft charge in Clallam County Superior Court in Port Angeles.

Smeland pleaded not guilty to the felony theft charge in February 2020 but records say he stopped showing up for court. A judge issued a $250 bench warrant for his arrest in June 2020, which was the last time action was taken on the case, according to online records.

Lt. Ken Dickinson, a spokesperson for the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, said before an inmate is released from custody, corrections officers run a warrant check.

Smeland's warrant says the Clallam County prosecutor would extradite from nearby counties, according to the Clallam County Clerk’s Office.

Dickinson said no records were kept showing what actions Kitsap County Jail officers took before releasing Smeland, but jail supervisors relayed to Dickinson that officers had contacted authorities in Clallam County and inquired what officials there wanted done about the warrant.

Dickinson said the Kitsap jail officers were told Clallam jail officers would not fetch Smeland, and they did not request he be placed on a shuttle between jails to have him brought to Port Angeles.

Without a request to hold Smeland, and with his Kitsap County jail sentence completed, Dickinson said Kitsap jail officials had no alternative but to release Smeland.

“We have to release them at that point because they served their time with us,” Dickinson said. He noted that with jail booking restrictions, if Smeland had been pulled over by a Kitsap County deputy the day before the wreck, Smeland would not have been taken into custody for the felony warrant. Felony theft is considered a “non-violent” offense.

Clallam County Sheriff’s Office officials did not immediately respond to an email from the Kitsap Sun sent Tuesday inquiring about Smeland’s warrant.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Man accused in Belfair crash had been released from jail 4 days before despite felony warrant