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05/16/2007: "Charges Filed In Fatal Accident On SJI"

(file photo of March accident)

Charges have been filed against the alleged driver of a car involved in the fatal car accident on SJI last March.

Based on evidence at the scene, the car left the road at "over 70 mph in a 45 mph zone” near a scenic pull out at the south end of San Juan Island, and then apparently rolled, or flipped over, resulting in the death of one of the occupants of the car, Jarvis Teasdale, age 22, of San Juan Island,

Robert Benedict has been charged with vehicular homicide, a Class A felony. The owner of the car, Amber Beeston, age 20, is alleged to have been a passenger in the car, and to have let Mr. Benedict, age 25, drive the car. The third occupant in the car, Teasdale, was thrown from the car, and pronounce dead at the scene.

According to an affidavit by Detective Brent Johnson of the SJC Sheriff’s office, shortly before the accident Beeston had told a cashier at the Little Sore in Friday Harbor that “Benedict was driving because she was too intoxicated to drive.

The affidavit also states that “a neighbor found an apparently confused and disoriented Robert Benedict walking in a nearby field”.

The Sheriff’s office reported that when first responders had shown up at the scene, both Beeston and Benedict were interviewed at the scene. Statements made at the accident scene indicated that Beeston was the driver of the car at the time of the accident. Prosecuting attorney Randy Gaylord said that his office does not believe reports that have been made which assert Beeston and Benedict have no memory of the accident. Gaylord stated that comments made at the scene by Beeston indicated who was driving the car at the time of the accident..

Accident victims do not always recall the details of an accident, or even the accident event, and it is also possible they may not recall events immediately following an event. But while it is well established in the academic world that memory loss can result from traumatic events, there can be methods and techniques used to obtain evidence at an accident scene that may be used to attempt to prove what led up to an accident, and who was driving, and who was sitting where.

A hearing in the SJC Superior Count has been scheduled for May 25, at 9:00 a.m, for the purpose of allowing Benedict to “admit or deny the charges… and to set a date for a trial if appropriate”.