06/09/2007

Associated Press

A driver who fled on foot following a fatal head-on collision is being held for investigation of vehicular homicide, and two more people have been arrested in an unrelated hit-and-run death in Bellingham.

The chase began Wednesday after a Ford Taurus collided with a flatbed towtruck east of this town and northeast of Everett, Snohomish County sheriff's deputies said.

The front-seat passenger in the Taurus, a 25-year-old Lynnwood man, was pronounced dead at the scene and the driver fled. A sheriff's helicopter was dispatched, and more than an hour later a tracking dog found Kelly C. Nickell, 28, of Everett, hiding in shrubbery north of the crash scene, sheriff's office spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said.

Nickell, with alcohol on his breath, was taken to a hospital to be checked for injuries, then was arrested for investigation of vehicular homicide, Hover said. He appeared briefly in Everett District Court on Thursday and a judge set bail at $250,000.

A rear-seat passenger in the Taurus, a pregnant 22-year-old Lynnwood woman, was admitted to a hospital in Everett with serious injuries, and the towtruck driver was hospitalized with less severe injuries.

Empty and full beer bottles were scattered inside the car, according to a police affidavit filed in court.

Nickell's criminal record includes burglary and drug possession convictions in Colorado. Records also show he was arrested in Snohomish County last year and returned to Colorado for a parole violation, was cited last month for speeding and has three other citations for driving with a suspended license.

Meanwhile, Chad Everett Abbott, 30, of Bellingham, was booked into the Whatcom County Jail on Monday for investigation of first-degree rendering criminal assistance in a hit-and-run death last weekend near Western Washington University.

The victim in that case was 19-year-old Steven Anthony Rhone Jr.

Amber E. Cooper has been charged with helping to conceal damage to the car.

Damian Scott Mackay, 21, has been charged with vehicular homicide and hit-and-run driving resulting in death. Mackay's girlfriend, Amanda Ann Littrell, 20, of Bellingham, is charged with complicity to leaving the scene of an accident and rendering criminal assistance.

According to documents filed in court by prosecutors, Cooper had been drinking with Littrell and Mackay, who was said to have consumed a total of nine to 12 drinks at four watering holes.