‘So tragic.’ She killed her sister in drunken Eastern WA crash. Now she’s going to prison
A 20-year-old Tri-City woman who was abandoned and abused by family members for years is now headed to prison for the killing her sister while driving drunk last year.
Taytum Smiscon-Ohms’s attorney argued during a sentencing hearing Monday that her years of abuse combined with her young age made her more likely to engage in reckless behavior.
“Many of Ms. Smiscon-Ohms’s experiences leading up to this collision in October 2024 have affected her brain’s development and her ability to evaluate risk,” defense attorney Megan Kilgore wrote in a memo asking a judge to impose an exception sentence of four years in prison.
Smiscon-Ohms previously pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while driving intoxicated, which carries a standard state sentence of 6 1/2 to 8 1/2 years.
She was driving on the 5800 block of North Wilgus Road near Prosser when she lost control, drove through a ditch, hit a concrete barrier and flew into the air.
In the crash, her 22-year-old sister, Nyrie, was thrown through the sunroof and died. Smiscon-Ohms suffered only minor injuries.
A Benton County Sheriff’s deputy found a bottle of wine and a jar of marijuana near the car.
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Andrew Clark called the crash tragic and agreed Smiscon-Ohms deserved the low end of the sentencing range but not less than that.
“We’re very fortunate that someone else in the Benton County community was not harmed by her drunk driving that day. But tragically, it was her own sister that died,” he said. “That is a reality that she is going to have to live with for the rest of her life.”
Kilgore asked for the shorter sentence since Smiscon-Ohms was just 19 at the time of the crash. She pointed out that the state Supreme Court requires judges to consider the age of the defendant in their sentencing decision.
She argued that Smiscon-Ohms’ upbringing contributed to her problems. Her written memo to the judge said the sisters were “repeatedly removed from (their mother’s) care” and placed with a foster mom. “The removal occurred because of physical and mental abuse.”
That included their mom “providing alcohol to the girls and physically assaulting them if they did not want to drink,” said her memo.
“In this case, this (drinking and driving) was a poor choice,” Kilgore said Monday. “This is a choice to be in a car after having consumed alcohol and the results of that are that her sister died.”
Smiscon-Ohms cried in court Monday as she talked about her love for her sister and her family.
Judge Bronson Brown sided with prosecutors, sentencing her to 6 1/2 years in prison.
“This is a tragic case. There’s no way around that,” Brown said, adding that he believed that Smiscon-Ohms deeply regretted what happened.
“The bigger point is, it’s so tragic, a life was lost in this case, and so the law requires some justice,” he said.