PORT ANGELES — Engre Louise Brown, 28, pleaded guilty today to vehicular homicide and was sentenced to 12 years in prison in the Oct. 7 death of Benjamin Michael Merscher, 25, of Sequim.
The outlines of a plea agreement were drawn Tuesday night after a day of several hours of jury questioning for Brown’s trial, and was finalized this morning before jury selection began anew, said Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly and Port Angeles lawyer John Black, representing Brown.
Black said in an interview that it became apparent the first-degree murder charge would not stick after several potential jurors were told that Brown was willing to plead guilty to vehicular homicide.
Brown, who is also from Sequim, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.18 percent — more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent — when she hit Merscher’s car at about 1:30 a.m. on U.S. Highway 101 west of Kitchen-Dick Road between Port Angeles and Sequim, said Kelly during pretrial motions Monday.
The jury would have had the options of finding Brown guilty of first-degree murder or vehicular homicide had testimony in the Clallam County Superior Court case gotten under way later this week.
The trial was expected to last two weeks.
Brown also pleaded guilty to driving with a revoked license and two counts of contempt of court for drinking and driving in violation of court orders.
Each carries a maximum sentence of one year and will be served concurrently as part of the 12-year sentence.
As part of the plea agreement, Brown also agreed that she was solely responsible for Merscher’s death.
“That was a integral part of the agreement,” Kelly said.
