Pasma gets maximum sentence: 9 months

Richard Pasma, 24, was sentenced Monday to nine months in jail stemming from a November 2009 hit-and-run incident.

Kristin Grindley, his live-in girlfriend at the time, was ejected from his pick-up truck and was found near death on the side of Pullman-Albion Road. There was not enough evidence to define circumstances by which she exited the vehicle - if she was pushed, jumped or otherwise - so Pasma entered an Alford guilty plea.

The plea maintains a person's innocence but admits enough evidence exists that prosecution likely would be able to get a conviction.

Grindley sustained a broken shoulder, ankle and nose and a skull fracture. She spent more than three months in the hospital and still has trouble with her senses of sight and sound.

The incident also caused her to lose a portion of her memory spanning the last five years.

Until Monday, Grindley had maintained she did not remember what happened that night. At the sentencing, she told Superior Court Judge David Frazier her memory is coming back in pieces, and she now remembers climbing into the cab of Pasma's truck after an argument.

Pasma's attorney, Tim Esser, said Pasma was busy looking in front of the truck making sure she wasn't in front of the vehicle and therefore wouldn't have noticed her climb in the truck bed or realized she'd fallen out.

Grindley's father, Rick, said police simulations of a person Kristin's size getting into the back of a similar truck at night proved repeatedly that the weight, view and sound of such an act would be noticed.

Her mother spoke about believing Pasma had been a physical, emotional and verbal abuser.

Pasma began crying as Kristin stepped up to address Frazier.

She said he drank daily, grew

marijuana in the attic and would lock her out when they fought. She'd write him apology letters and slip them under the door.

"We're not here to sentence him for (alleged) domestic violence or substance abuse," Frazier said, or if either Pasma or Grindley was a bad relationship partner, but based on the fact that he didn't stop or remain at the scene as ordered by law.

Frazier denied Pasma a first-time offender waiver, which could have meant no jail time, saying it was "absolutely" unacceptable due to the serious nature of Grindley's injuries. He said anything less than nine months, the maximum allowable sentence for a hit-and-run, would "otherwise be a slap against Ms. Grindley."

Rick Grindley said although Pasma was most likely told not to try to contact her, had he been in Pasma's situation and innocent, "wild horses wouldn't keep me back" from reaching out to her with flowers or phone calls.

Pasma and his mother, Carol Ingles, turned around to apologize to the Grindley family during their testimonies to Frazier. Ingles said it's been a year of healing and closure.

"We're proud of the strength (Pasma's) shown," she said.

Pasma will serve his sentence in the Whitman County Jail with work release and school release to finish his degree at Washington State University.

Kelsey Husky can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 237, or by e-mail to khusky@dnews.com.