A 21-year-old Kent man has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide in the death of an Auburn woman on the Benson Highway in Renton the evening of May 3.
Gildardo Celestino-Flores also pleaded not guilty Wednesday to reckless driving.
A trial date could be set for Celestino-Flores at a hearing June 3.
He is being held at Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent on $75,000 bail.
He was charged with both crimes earlier this month.
Renton police and prosecutors said alcohol was a factor in the accident. Witnesses reported that Celestino-Flores was driving north on 108th Avenue Southeast at speeds of up to 100 mph.
According to charging papers, Celestino-Flores drove his pickup truck into the southbound lane, slamming head-on into two cars at Southeast 190th Street. The collision killed Karen Pegors, 56, of Auburn and injured two men and one woman. One of the injured men was Pegors’ husband Douglas Pegors, 60.
If convicted, Celestino-Flores faces three to four years in prison, said Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County Prosecutor’s Office.
Charging papers tell the story of the collision, which Renton Police responded to at about 6 p.m. on May 3.
Celestino-Flores was seen driving his white Ford pickup 60-100 mph in the 45-mph zone as he approached several cars stopped in front of him at a red light on 108th Avenue at Southeast 192nd Street. According to witnesses, he then swerved into the southbound lanes and “blasted through the red light,” prosecutors wrote. Witnesses said he then appeared to be veering back into his lanes when his pickup smashed into the passenger side of the Pegors’ silver Honda Accord.
Celestino-Flores’ pickup then continued in the oncoming southbound lanes, hitting the second car, a white GMC pickup driven by Daniel Gates of Kent. His passenger was Autumn Geschke, whose hometown wasn’t available.
Celestino-Flores’ pickup then continued northbound for about 50 yards, finally stopping in the northbound lanes of Benson.
Pegors was killed at the scene. Her husband was sent to Harborview; his condition wasn’t available. Gates was treated and released from an unknown hospital the night of May 3. Geschke suffered a neck injury, but the charging papers didn’t indicate if she was treated at a hospital.
Responding witnesses found Celestino-Flores crawling from the driver’s seat to the passenger’s seat of his pickup. He then claimed that his brother had been driving and ran away. He later admitted that he was the driver and the only occupant of the truck.
An open bottle of Corona was found on the driver’s seat of Celestino-Flores’ truck. Celestino-Flores told investigators that before the collision, he had six beers at a friend’s house. He said he was driving to his cousin’s house.
In the police report, officer Steven Rice reported that after the collision Celestino-Flores was unsteady on his feet. His eyes were bloodshot and watery and he smelled of alcohol, Rice reported.
Celestino-Flores’ preliminary blood-alcohol level was .26, more than three times the state’s legal limit of .08.
Celestino-Flores was also driving with a suspended driver’s license. According to prosecutors, he has convictions for no valid driver’s license, no liability insurance and driving with an open container.
Prosecutors also wrote Celestino-Flores appears to be illegally in the United States. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a hold on him, according to charging papers.
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