Teen was looking at phone before collision that killed pedestrian in Auburn, charges say

A teenager who fatally struck a man at a stop sign in Auburn in 2020 was momentarily distracted by his phone, according to court documents.

Pierce County prosecutors on Friday charged an 18-year-old man with vehicular homicide in Superior Court for the Sept. 30, 2020, incident that killed a pedestrian. The driver was 16 years old when the collision occurred.

The News Tribune generally names defendants charged in incidents of vehicular homicide. It is not doing so in this case because of the defendant’s age at the time of the collision. The man killed in the crash was identified in court documents as John D. Connolly.

According to charging documents, the defendant told police he was driving south on Lakeland Hills Way Southeast that evening when he received a text message and looked down at his phone while going through the intersection of 69th Street Southeast. The vehicle struck Connolly, who first responders found unconscious on the west shoulder of the roadway.

The driver was to be arraigned Nov. 18. It’s unclear why charges are just now being filed. A spokesperson for the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to an email requesting more information. According to court records, the defendant does not have a criminal history in Pierce County.

Auburn Police Department officers responded at about 8:30 p.m., according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. Officers conducted field sobriety tests on the driver and found no signs of impairment. The driver told police he estimated he was going 15-20 mph when he hit the man.

Connolly was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with a life-threatening head injury, according to the probable cause document. He died two days later.

Police later interviewed the driver and examined the vehicle involved in the collision. According to the probable cause document, officers’ analysis of the incident was consistent with the defendant’s description of what happened.