SNOHOMISH — In March 2023, two best friends from Snohomish were out celebrating one of them turning 18 with a trip to Seattle’s Alki Beach when their car was hit by a drunken driver going the wrong way on the West Seattle bridge.
Their lives were cut short by the actions of Delfino Lopez-Morales.
On Nov. 8, a King County Superior Court judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison on two counts of vehicular homicide and one count of reckless driving.
Both Riley Danard, 18, and Khalea Thoeuk, 18, were mourned as kind, compassionate people at a public memorial.
Thoeuk was a Snohomish High senior. She would be in her sophomore year at Western Washington University today if not for the fatal crash.
Lopez-Morales reportedly was speeding on roads in West Seattle for miles before driving onto the bridge in the opposite lanes. Witnesses estimated his speed at upwards of 70 miles an hour in his ‘90s Chevy pickup. Other drivers had to take evasive action on the bridge before he collided head-on with Danard’s Honda Civic.
Media outlets that attended the sentencing reported Lopez-Morales’ siblings asked for a lesser sentence because he was born with cerebral palsy (he is a wheelchair user) and had personal troubles at the time he got behind the wheel.
Lopez-Morales himself had remorse, and told the judge he wished he was who had died in the crash.
Judge Angela Kaake reportedly called his actions that night a reckless crime during the court proceeding.
