Kent man pleads not guilty to four counts of vehicular homicide

A 22-year-old Kent man pleaded not guilty on Monday to four counts of vehicular homicide in connection with a Oct. 7 crash along State Route 518 near the Interstate 405 interchange in Tukwila.

Jesse Tenorio entered his plea in King County Superior Court. He is out of custody after posting $250,000 bail Oct. 11, just three days after being booked into the King County jail. He is scheduled to return to court Dec. 4 when a trial date could be set or attorneys can request more time to prepare for the case.

Tenorio reportedly crashed his mother’s 2004 Nissan Titan pickup twice earlier in the night prior to the wreck that killed his four passengers – Myron Singh, 22; Luis Perez, 21; Juan Carrasco-Rodriguez, 18; and Anthony Perez, 22. They each died at the scene from multiple blunt force injuries, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office. Carrasco-Rodriguez died on his 18th birthday in the 2:17 a.m. crash. All four were from Kent.

Tenorio drifted off of SR 518 to the right and collided with a guardrail that protects support pillars to the southbound I-5 overpass, according to court documents. The pickup then rotated sideways and rolled, according to the Washington State Patrol. Tenorio was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected into nearby blackberry bushes.

During the rollover, the Nissan Titan’s roof struck the southbound I-5 overpass bridge pillar causing the roof to crush inwards onto the four passengers, one in the front passenger seat and three in the rear seat. The pickup then rotated around the backside of the pillar coming to a final rest facing westbound on its wheels.

State Patrol investigators have not yet released an estimated speed for the Nissan prior to the crash, but called it a “high rate” of speed in the initial accident report.

A State Patrol trooper contacted Tenorio in the back of the medic unit. Tenorio was drifting in and out of consciousness and was unable to answer questions. The trooper noted he could smell an odor of intoxicants coming from Tenorio. Paramedics transported Tenorio to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was treated for injuries and released on Oct. 8. Troopers arrested Tenorio at the hospital for investigation of vehicular homicide.

Hospital personnel collected two vials of blood from Tenorio. The State Patrol will have the blood tested to determine a blood alcohol level.

Earlier during the night before the quadruple fatality, Tenorio reportedly crashed the pickup into a hillside on South 212th Street near State Route 167. Kent firefighters witnessed the crash and reported all occupants were intoxicated, but Tenorio and his passengers fled the scene prior to police arriving. A bit later, a witness saw a pickup speed through a gate at a bus tunnel near Sea-Tac Airport.

Tenorio, whose address is in Kent’s North Park neighborhood, has a prior conviction for DUI in Kent in 2017 that was reduced to reckless endangerment, according to court documents.