Mattawa man pleads guilty to vehicular assault

EPHRATA — A Mattawa man has pleaded guilty to allegations that he crashed a vehicle while under the influence of methamphetamine and marijuana in 2014.

That accident reportedly resulted in numerous injuries to his passenger, including a crushed pelvis and loss of sight in one eye.

Francisco Mejia, 21, pleaded guilty to vehicular assault by reckless driving in Grant County Superior Court the week of Sept. 14. Grant County Superior Court Judge John Knodell set Mejia’s sentencing date for Oct. 5.

At about 10:10 p.m. on Oct. 22, 2014, officers from the Moses Lake Police Department were dispatched to a report of a one-vehicle injury collision about a half a mile north of Wheeler Road on Road N Northeast, according to police records.

Officers and medical personnel responded to the scene and found a 2001 Ford Focus had been left on the west side of the road and had reportedly struck a large galvanized steel Grant County Public Utilities District power pole.

The accident reportedly caused extensive damage to the vehicle and potentially life threatening injuries to the female passenger in the vehicle, an 18-year-old woman, who was identified as Mejia’s girlfriend.

The driver of the vehicle, Mejia, reportedly ran to the REC Silicon entry gate after the accident and had them call emergency services, according to police records.

The woman was extracted from the vehicle and taken to Samaritan Hospital for treatment and later flown to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. Medical staff at Samaritan reportedly recovered a bag containing 4.8 grams of meth in the woman’s clothes.

Mejia reportedly refused to cooperate with Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST’s), but admitted to smoking marijuana earlier in the day and volunteered to submit to a Preliminary Breath Test (PBT). Mejia reportedly told police that his girlfriend was bored in Mattawa and wanted to visit a friend in Moses Lake.

Mejia said his girlfriend directed him to not drive through Moses Lake and they were traveling north on Road N at about 35-40 mph when he hit a large pool of water.

He told police that after hitting the water he lost control and the rear passenger side of his vehicle spun out, causing him to cross the center of the road and into unoccupied oncoming lanes until striking a curb and leaving the roadway.

“Mejia stated he never saw any signs warning about the water and he didn’t see the pool of water since it was so dark that night,” the police records stated.

The police report stated that there were warning signs north and south of the low point in the roadway warning drivers of water over the roadway. A witness at REC Silicon reported seeing the signs being up and in place earlier that day.

A spokesmen with the City of Moses Lake Storm Water Division later confirmed that the signs had been in place on the day of the accident and had been checked in the afternoon before 4 p.m., the report said.

Police reportedly found a meth pipe in Mejia’s girlfriend’s purse, as well as a meth pipe on the floor of the vehicle on the driver’s side.