Seven-year sentence for hitting flagger

PALMER — Just two weeks short of a year after he hit a construction zone flagger in Wasilla, a local man has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Joshua Vialpando made a brief statement Thursday before accepting a 10-year sentence with three suspended on his conviction for first-degree assault.

“I’m not a bad person. I never meant to hurt anyone,” Vialpando said. “I can’t change anything that I’ve done, and so I’m just sorry. To Miss McDaniel, I’m sorry.”

Lacey McDaniel, the flagger who was hit, answered from the viewing gallery, “That’s all I could really expect. It does help to hear that.”

Wasilla police filed charges of assault and leaving the scene of an accident against Vialpando in early August 2008. Most of the facts of what happened in the wee hours of the morning in a construction zone at Parks Highway and Lucus Road were undisputed in court. Vialpando hit McDaniel doing something close to 50 miles per hour. He didn’t stop. Police tracked him down later.

Vialpando was never charged with drunken driving in the case. His attorney, Lyle Stohler, said part of the plea agreement reached with prosecutors bars such a charge stemming from the accident. Vialpando himself, in statements made to police, only admitted to having one beer. But Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler, going over a report probation officers prepared, cited witness accounts of Vialpando drinking until he was drunk at a local bar just hours before the accident.

“It does seem to me that there is ample evidence that the statement that Mr. Vialpando had just one beer isn’t a true and correct statement,” she said.

McDaniel, who attended the hearing in a wheelchair, told the court that since the accident she has spent a great deal of time in pain so unbearable she can’t get out of bed. She said she has worked hard “to piece my body back together.”

“It’s like my life is on pause — a very painful pause,” McDaniel said. “I was very independent and it was very hard for me to lose my independence.”

Assistant District Attorney Trina Sears said Vialpando’s conduct was egregious.

“He didn’t stop. He continued to drive and just left her there, possibly to die. She almost did die,” Sears said.

She said a seven-year sentence for an assault such as this is fair. She said he wasn’t getting off easy, noting vehicular manslaughter cases in which the defendant got only five years in prison. She also pointed out that Vialpando wasn’t allowed to plead to a lesser charge and had to take the sentence that goes along with a first-degree assault conviction.

Stohler, for his part, said his client certainly wasn’t getting off light.

“Seven years is a lot of jail time … for conduct that was certainly reckless but was accidental,” Stohler said.

Since Stohler, Vialpando and Sears had all agreed on the sentence, Cutler said her only major duty was to accept it as just, which she did. But she said there was a question of how long Vialpando would lose his license. She said she favored a lifetime revocation.

“It’s hard to me to imagine why we would re-license somebody,” after a conviction like this, she said, though Cutler left the door open to the attorneys to file briefs if they disagree.

Cutler also directed some comments at McDaniel. Pointing to statements McDaniel had made saying her life was forever changed that morning, Cutler urged her to recognize that “your wonderful spirit and determination and strength are still with you.”

Outside of court, McDaniel said she was glad Cutler would most likely take Vialpando’s license away. Asked if she got any closure from the sentencing, she said that her healing process is far from over, but having the court case concluded did help, and was probably also helpful for Vialpando.

“I think it’s probably good for both of us that it’s all over,” she said.

McDaniel said there’s a lesson for everyone to learn form her case, one made all the more relevant by the various downtown Palmer road closures and work on area highways.

“I would just like people to slow down, because it can happen even when you’re not drinking,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.