Pasco man sentenced to 8.5 years for fatal hit-and-run

It wasn’t until after someone brought Mila Smith home from gymnastics one day last spring that the 6-year-old learned why her dad didn’t pick her up as planned.

Jason Smith was in a brutal car wreck. He died a few hours later.

So when Mila recently learned her family was writing letters to the man who caused the crash, she insisted on writing her own.

“Can I say anything I want? Can I curse?” she asked her grandfather, Steven Davis.

It ended up being the only letter of dozens not read Monday at a 2 1/2 -hour sentencing hearing for Miguel Paniagua, 24, of Pasco.

“It was short. It was full of hateful and spiteful things. But I’m not going to read it,” Davis told the judge. “That’s not who she is.”

Instead, Franklin County Superior Court Judge Vic VanderSchoor heard statements from many other relatives and friends still grieving Smith’s death, including his teenage daughter, TriStar.

“Everything shattered into millions and billions of pieces that can’t be put back together,” wrote the 16-year-old.

She said she couldn’t recall if she’d said, “I love you” to her father when he’d dropped her off for a lifeguard class. Now she can’t watch movies with crashes or death, noting actors can’t come anywhere close to showing how it really feels.

Paniagua sat quietly during the long hearing, never speaking and averting his eyes from a large family photo of Smith, 36, with his wife, Wendy, and two daughters.

His attorney Peyman Younesi said his client had no interest in challenging the prosecutor’s sentence recommendation of 8 1/2 years in prison and declined to have any letters from his family and friends read at the hearing.

“We’re not going to make this day about him,” Younesi said of Paniagua.

The statements and letters from relatives, long-time family friends, ministers, co-workers and members of the community were read Monday by Davis, Smith’s father John and brother Matthew, and by a victim’s advocate.

Nearly all spoke of how Smith’s death traumatized his wife and daughters, shattered his parents and left a void in the community.

Many said Paniagua’s sentence, the maximum allowed under the law, was a slap in the face to the Smith family and that he deserved as much as life behind bars and to never forget the sorrow he’s brought to so many.

“I wish I could burn the eyes of (Jason Smith’s daughters) into your memory,” Davis said in his own statement. “So you can see the pain I see in them.”

Paniagua, a known gang member, was fleeing from police on April 2 after being pulled over for a traffic infraction on Sylvester Street.

He had a .357-caliber revolver in the pickup and wasn’t allowed to carry a gun because of his criminal history, including gang-related assaults and fleeing from police.

Though police cut off the chase because of the danger to the public, Paniagua crossed the Sylvester Street overpass going over Highway 395 at nearly 100 mph and slammed into Jason Smith’s car going about 85 mph.

Paniagua ran off, but was arrested two weeks later. He pleaded guilty last month to vehicular homicide, unlawful possession of a gun, attempting to elude police and failing to stop at a fatal crash.

Smith, a 1997 Kamiakin High School graduate and computer specialist with his own company, died at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland shortly after the collision.

Each of Jason Smith’s family members described vivid memories of that day. TriStar recalled being in the hospital waiting room when the doctor came out and said her father didn’t make it.

Wendy Smith, who couldn’t bring herself to attend Monday’s hearing, wrote about her struggle to find the words to tell Mila what happened to her dad.

John Smith recounted rushing to the hospital with his wife to see their son for a final time, knowing he had already died.

“His ears were still bleeding as he lay dead,” John said. “How can you bleed if your heart isn’t beating?”

Deputy Prosecutor Frank Jenny said Paniagua has cooperated with authorities since he was arrested and that he has declared remorse for what happened and suffers his own nightmares. While that should be taken into account, Jenny said there was a lot of frustration that Paniagua could only be in prison for 8 1/2 years, many years less than for a manslaughter charge that can be for equally reckless behavior.

VanderSchoor said that if there was anything he could do to lessen the Smith family’s pain and every one who knew Jason Smith, he would do it in a heartbeat.

Also, if Paniagua’s charges could have been enhanced to allow for a longer prison sentence, the judge said prosecutors would have pursued them, and he would have considered them.

“I, like everyone else, have to follow the laws the Legislature has given us,” he said.

While a few of the statements from Jason Smith’s family and friends indicated they prayed for Paniagua’s rehabilitation and to find a new direction in life, many more said they weren’t able to forgive him yet.

They also hoped that Paniagua doesn’t soon forget what he has done.

“I’d like to see these (letters) recorded and piped into the defendant’s cell daily,” Davis said.

This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 11:47 AM with the headline "Pasco man sentenced to 8.5 years for fatal hit-and-run."