A 23-year-old man accused in a crash on Christmas Day in the Roy area that killed two women is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon.
Pierce County prosecutors have charged Lyle C. Painter IV with two counts of vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault in connection with the Dec. 25 crash. Prosecutors allege Painter was driving in a reckless manner or with a disregard to public safety.
Jennifer Ussery, 36, and her stepmother, 74-year-old Dorothy Jones-Ussery, died of injuries sustained in the crash.
The two were passengers in a station wagon the afternoon of Dec. 25. The vehicle was having problems pulling out of a driveway in the 7100 block of 288th Street South because of the snowy and icy conditions.
After the station wagon made it onto the road, it was hit by Painter’s pickup truck. The station wagon went down a snow bank. The pickup truck also traveled down a steep snow-covered embankment, court documents state.
All four occupants of the station wagon were injured. Jennifer Ussery was taken to Madigan Army Medical Center and was pronounced dead. Jones-Ussery was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center and died Jan. 12 as a result of complications of blunt force trauma to the chest, court documents state.
Painter was not injured.
Court documents state the driver of the station wagon didn’t see Painter’s truck as it crested a hill.
Investigators downloaded information from the pickup truck’s on-board computer. The data showed Painter was going 63 mph two second before the crash and 45 mph 0.1 seconds before his airbag deployed.
“Reconstruction calculations show that the defendant was 246 feet from the point of impact when he reacted to the Ussery vehicle ahead of him,” charging documents state. “The posted speed limit on 299th is 35 mph. If traveling at the posted speed limit and confronted with the same potential hazard – the defendant should have been able to stop his vehicle 95 feet prior to the Ussery’s driveway.”
Prosecutors filed charges against Painter earlier this month and issued a summons for Painter to appear in court today for an arraignment.
Such a tragedy, hope this man get’s a second chance in life. We all make mistakes…
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are you kidding 2nd chance in life??what about the 2 lifes he took driving recklesley??i give my condolences to the family for their tradgedy..of all days christmas day.a day for family cellebrations.not a tragedy…
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Palin………his second chance should be in prison. He is lucky to be alive so he should take what he gets…….at least his family can still see and visit him…in prison
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RE: nashabee and mab
what about? what about? It’s done and sad, but to persecute this young man and push it in his face all his life is not right either. He should pay and repent, but in the end, get his second chance. He didn’t want this to happen, yet he must pay and after that I hope he gets to live a good life. All you that say shoot them, execute them, etc.. don’t know how it is to be on the other side and find redemption. Grow some empathy and understand its not only about the victims, its society in whole. If it was you, you would want a chance to redeem yourself. But all you hypocrites that want the capital punishment and want to destroy others simply because they made a bad choice are truly the evil people in this society. You obviously believe in eye for an eye… and then the whole world goes blind. ah bliss huh? yup you betcha!@
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Palin2012yup ,,OMG , maybe a time out for him,,that will do it,,you type of people are why we have 3-4-7 time offenders of a DWI, then killing innocent people,,or child molesters, then killing and tormenting kids or whatever,,How bout he killed 2 people, gone for ever,,now he pays for his bad decision,that’s the law of our land, ,that could stop others from plowing down a icy street at 65 with no regard for anyone,, get a clue, these people don’t really care about you , only them selves, they will kill you and if they are not caught they don’t care , only thing they do care about is them, and getting them off the streets is a good thing for everyone else,,,wake up!
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you guys know nothing about this. ya two lives were taken. and i feel sorry for the family. thank you palin we are all hoping and praying he gets that 2nd chance. he may not have been hurt physically in the accident but he is emotionally and mentally hurt/drained. he helped the best he could after the accident. so i hope everyone knows that he is not just some punk kid from roy who doesnt care. does anyone not know that they pulled out in front of him??
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Hey I got a idea how about all of you know a few facts. Not what this crappy article decided they wanted to right. Maybe the fact that this was not a “punk kid” this was a MAN. A man that served all of us fighting for his country for 4 years. So he is not some PUNK that needs to pay. How about the FACT that he after the wreck was the first to start CPR on one of the victims. I know he feels very bad for what happend that day but to think that he is a PUNK and don’t care is way out of line. We all have made mistakes. If you could see where it happend no one should ever tried backing out of a driveway in that spot.
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Correction – the accident was on 288th St (not 299th as printed)
The fact is… that he is just one of the many idiots that drive thru our 35 mph speed zone far exceeding the speed limit.
The fact is…had he not been exceeding the speed limit by nearly 30 mph, he would have been able to stop sooner and two of my neighbors would not be dead.
The fact is…just because he served his country does not mean he should get a free pass. Perhaps you would not think that if two of your family had been the victims. Many of us that live in this area have served our country, I’ve done over 30 myself, I don’t expect a free pass, I expect to have to obey the rules like everyone else.
If a jury of his peers finds Mr Painter guilty, he should pay a reasonable price as dictated by the law, no one should expect more or less from the system of justice that we have in place. No one should feel that they are exempt from the law because of previous deeds performed.
Before you throw a “pitty-party” for Mr. Painter, you should think about the fact that he’s lucky to be alive, at least his family still has him, unfortunately, the Ussery’s don’t have that luxury.
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Dorothy was my Grandmother-in-law.
She was an amazing woman.
The strongest/bravest woman I have ever met.
Family was everything to her.
FACTS:
Lyle Painter was driving 63mph in a 35 mph speed zone.
Lyle Painter is the reason the wreck happened.
Lyle Painter is the reason our Grandmother is no longer with us.
And…
Lyle Painter is the reason my 8 month old Daughter will never get to meet her Great Grandmother. Dorothy was so excited about being a great grandmother, it’s all her and I ever talked about.
People think that just because he served our country he deserves to be let free..?
Is he not human, do laws not apply to him?
Just because he performed CPR makes it ok?
I think not.
I hope they throw the book at him and he gets the maximum sentence.
Painter was speeding RECKLESSLY and KILLED 2 innocent woman.
To ALL of you defending him:
Do you not know how long and hard our whole family cried? Which I happen to be doing right now.
Do you even know what it is like to lose someone so special in such a horrific manner?
Do you know what it was like to see her lying in the hospital bed and not be able to do a damn thing about it?
I don’t care what he did for our country.
I care about what he did to my family, and what he selfishly took away from us.
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Ok so where any of you there that day. No. Well I was as someone who was at the scene of this tragedy and horiffic event. I didn’t know the people killed that day. I was there doing my job as an Emergency Medical Professional. I deal with these situation daily as I did that day. That day it was icy out and snowy. Couple of facts for everyone yes he hit the vehicle. The vehicle that was backing in to traffic on a blind hill and you can’t see the driveway until you are right up on it. The speed limit on “288th” is 35. I feel sorry for the family of all people involved.
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And according to the police, if Painter had been doing the speed limit(35 mph), regardless of road conditions, he would have been able to stop 95 feet before the driveway. So the fact that they were backing out of their driveway is irrelevant to the circumstances.
I hope this will teach all those idiots who think they own the road a thing or 2.
You could hurt yourself, or someone else. Either way you won’t come out on top.
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WELL TO SOME READERS IT IS OK TO JUST DRIVE OUT INTO TRAFIC WITHOUT LOOKING AND PUT OTHER PEOPLE AT RISK ( I DONT GET IT )IT WAS A HORRIBLE ACCIDENT !!!!!!!! AND TO THINK HE IS GETTING AWAY WITH SOMTHING IS WAY OFF . YOU PEOPLE THINK THAT CAUSE A COMPUTER SAYS IT IT MUST BE TRUE (COULD BE I WAS NOT THERE ) BUT THE POLICE GET THE STORY THEN THEY GO TO THE STATION AND WRITE WHAT THEY HEARD , THEN THE PROSICUTER GETS THE STATMENT AND WRITES WHAT HE READ IN HIS OWN WORDS THEN THE NEWS GETS IT AND PUTS IT IN THERE OWN WORDS THEN YOU PEOPLE READ IT AND THINK THAT ITS ALL FACTS . WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT TRY TO REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY YOU R HANGING HIM BEFORE YOU HEAR BOTH SIDES .
THE POLICE CAN SAY THAT HE COULD HAVE STOPPED BUT HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE HAD A DEER RUN OUT IN FRONT OF THERE CAR . IT HAPPENS REALLY FAST SOMTIMES ALL YOU CAN DO IS HANG ON AND GO FOR THE RIDE . MY POINT IS THAT THE POLICE DONT KNOW HOW FAR AWAY FROM THE DRIVEWAY HE WAS WHEN THE CAR CAME OUT IN FRONT OF HIM.
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