The Lynnwood man accused of crashing into a state trooper and killing him on Interstate 5 in Marysville, admitted to smoking marijuana and drinking beer before the crash, according to a new police report.<\/p>\n
Raul Benitez Santana, 32, made his first appearance in court Monday, March 4. The courtroom was filled with over a dozen state troopers and other members of law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Everett District Court Commissioner Jennifer Millett found probable cause for vehicular homicide and set bail at $1 million.<\/p>\n
Washington State Patrol trooper Chris Gadd, 27, had stopped along the right shoulder of I-5 near 136th Street NE, while on routine patrol for DUI drivers just before 3 a.m. Saturday, March 2.<\/p>\n
A witness reported Gadd was parked in a marked patrol vehicle with his lights off, according to the police report filed in Everett District Court. The witness reportedly had dashboard camera footage of the crash.<\/p>\n
A black SUV, traveling at a “high rate of speed,” veered to the right and struck the trooper’s car, according to authorities. Gadd was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n
A white van traveling south also collided with the black SUV, police said. The driver of the van was taken to the hospital with a broken leg and wrist. Five passengers in the van were not injured, according to the sheriff’s office.<\/p>\n
The SUV driver, Benitez Santana, stayed at the scene. Police arrested him for investigation of vehicular homicide. Prosecutors later added a vehicular assault allegation for the injuries to the van driver.<\/p>\n
Authorities took Benitez Santana to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett for an evaluation, then booked him into the Snohomish County Jail, according to police. A judge approved a warrant to get a sample of the driver’s blood to test for impairment, the report said.<\/p>\n
Benitez Santana reported smoking marijuana and drinking a Coors Light before the early morning crash, wrote sheriff’s deputy Chris Mashburn. Later, the driver admitted it was two Coors Lights, according to the deputy’s report. A breathalyzer test, given about 3½ hours after the crash, reportedly had a reading of 0.047.<\/p>\n
Millett noted Benitez Santana has a “significant” history of speeding. He received speeding tickets in 2012 and 2015, as well as a ticket for going 49 mph over the speed limit in 2020.<\/p>\n
On Saturday morning, law enforcement held a motorcade from the crash site to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office. Southbound I-5 remained closed for about nine hours north of Marysville. The freeway reopened around noon.<\/p>\n
Gadd was born in Pasco and graduated from Kentlake High School in Kent, according to a state patrol press release. He went on to attend Green River College and Tacoma Community College, earning his EMT certification. He was married with a 2-year-old daughter, according to the Washington State Patrol.<\/p>\n
He began working for the agency in September 2021 as a trooper cadet assigned to Grandview, Yakima County. His father, David Gadd, is also a state trooper in King County. His sister, Jacqueline Gadd, is a state trooper in Texas.<\/p>\n
Gadd was part of the 116th Trooper Basic Training class. Upon graduation in November 2022, he received two honors: the Top Collision Investigation Award and the Top Academic Award. After graduation, he was assigned to Marysville.<\/p>\n
Gadd is survived by his wife Cammryn, daughter Kaelyn, father David, mother Gillian and sister Jacqueline.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com<\/a><\/em>; Twitter: @snocojon<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The Herald in Everett is a sister publication of the Kent Reporter, part of Sound Publishing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chris Gadd, 27, a Kentlake High grad, was stopped along I-5 in Marysville before fatal collision <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":68406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68404"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=68404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}