An 18-year-old man is now officially charged in the deaths of four people in a crash in Renton on March 19.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office released documents Saturday detailing the charges against Chase Jones, detailing the four counts of Vehicular Homicide, two counts of Vehicular Assault, and one count of Reckless Driving that were filed.
“When you look at homicide cases, the most random types of homicides are vehicle homicides, not just in King County, but across Washington state,” said Casey McNerthney with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Jones is currently scheduled to be arraigned in early April.
The charges are the result of a horrific crash at the intersection of South 192nd Street and 140th Avenue South near Renton last Tuesday, March 19, that claimed the lives of a woman and three children and severely injured two children. One other adult in another vehicle suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The victims in the crash were Buster Brown, 12, Eloise Wilcoxson, 12, Matilda Wilcoxson, 13, and Andrea Hudson, 38.
“When you have people who are accused of crimes like this, it’s very important to get that before the courts,” McNerthney added. “Reckless driving is one of the charges that was filed. And that is an important one to get before the court.”
According to the King County Prosecutors Office, data from Jones’s 2015 Audi A4 indicate he was driving at 112 mph when he collided with the van.
Jones’ vehicle was bought just a month before the collision.
According to the court document, it was the third vehicle that he had totaled in a speeding crash in the last 11 months.
“That’s why in King County the prosecutor created a felony traffic unit last year, and is because of the increased number of cases that we’ve seen, but also the expertise in our office to try to handle these cases in the best way possible,” he said.
Jones is currently scheduled to be arraigned on those charges in early April.
He is set to be held on $1 million bail.