Tri-Cities teen sobs in court, day after 3 friends died. She’s accused of drinking, racing

The 19-year-old driver in Sunday’s deadly street racing crash told Richland detectives she started drinking four hours earlier at a Pasco house party.

Jennifer Ana Duong and her friends left the party to hang out at a Richland restaurant, and were on their way back to Pasco when her car smashed into a signal light pole.

Witnesses reported seeing two cars racing in George Washington Way’s southbound lanes in the moments leading up to the 2:46 a.m. wreck.

Duong admitted speeding — going “50, maybe more” — but denied racing when she lost control of her black Acura TL where the road curves at the Jadwin Avenue intersection, according to a court document.

That stretch of George Washington is 35 mph.

Duong could not recall the actual crash, just someone pulling her out of the driver’s seat of her sedan, the document said.

The car had sheared at an angle upon impact, with the back half stuck on the metal pole in the intersection’s “traffic island” and the front of the car landing about 130 feet away.

Lianna Salazar and Daniel Trejo, both 19, and Andres Morfin, 20, were pronounced dead at the scene of the single-car wreck.

Salazar and Morfin were cousins, and Trejo and Morfin were best friends.

On Monday, about 35 hours after the crash, Duong sobbed before making her first appearance in Benton County Superior Court for the deaths of her three passengers.

‘Risk to community’

While Duong was only visible from the shoulders up, her left hand could be seen wrapped up in a cast as she wiped her eyes with a tissue.

She was treated at a Tri-Cities hospital early Sunday before being arrested and booked into the Benton County jail in Kennewick.

She is locked up on an investigative hold for three counts of vehicular homicide. If charged this week, Duong will return to court Thursday afternoon.

Deputy Prosecutor Andrew Clark told Judge Dave Petersen on Monday that a high bail amount is warranted because of the danger to the community.

Duong has a pending hit-and-run case in District Court, and previously got a speeding ticket for driving 98 mph in a 70-mph zone, Clark said.

He added that even if the judge orders Duong to undergo alcohol monitoring if released from jail, there are no conditions that can be placed on her that would limit her from driving at a high rate of speed.

Petersen said he’s received no information to suggest Duong won’t return to court if freed from jail.

“As far as being a risk to the community, the allegations — while you’re innocent until proven guilty — in this particular case caused the court great concern ...,” he said. “The court believes $250,000 bail is appropriate.”

The judge told Duong that if she posts bond she must wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet and would be required to avoid all alcohol and non-prescription drugs while her case is pending.

Duong, who attended Kamiakin High School, now lives in Kennewick. She told the judge she has a job and plans to hire her own attorney, but Petersen appointed lawyer Shelley Ajax in the interim because of the gravity of the case.

Richland traffic cameras

Officer Brandon Koe wrote in the probable-cause affidavit that multiple witnesses told police that Duong’s Acura was speeding in the outside lane with a white car in the left lane.

Police initially asked for the public’s help in identifying two women in a white BMW. Those women reportedly stopped to buy gas on George Washington Way before racing the Acura.

The department later reported that the BMW driver and passenger, both juveniles, came forward to police on Sunday.

Koe said in the probable cause that Richland traffic cameras confirm witness reports that Duong’s Acura “was unable to negotiate the curve in the road” at George Washington and Jadwin.

One witness who came upon the crash just after it happened told police they found Duong still sitting in the front part of the car, the court document states.

Duong allegedly told the person that she had been driving, and had been drinking earlier.

Vodka and beer

At the hospital, police asked to have Duong’s blood immediately drawn because of the “exigent circumstances.” The results showing if there was any alcohol or drugs in her blood system have not yet come back, the document states.

When Koe talked with Duong, she admitted drinking a shot of vodka and 1 1/2 Modelo beers at the private house party in Pasco, starting about 10:30 p.m. Saturday.

Duong said they left the party to go to Denny’s restaurant in Richland’s Uptown Shopping Center, and were heading back to Pasco when she saw “a car’s headlights swerving up behind her,” Koe wrote in the probable cause.

She wouldn’t admit she was racing, he added, but did claim that her two male passengers “were urging her to race the other car.”

City crews on Monday worked to repair the signal pole, as several bouquets of flowers and some cans of Modelo beer were left at the site in a makeshift memorial for the victims.