A 19-year-old Washington state man has pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges, including vehicular homicide, in connection with a fatal car crash that occurred on March 19, 2024, near Renton, Washington. Chase Daniel Jones, who was 19 at the time of the incident, initially entered a not guilty plea during a court appearance via video from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for injuries sustained in the crash.
The collision occurred when Jones, driving a 2015 Audi A4 at 112 mph in a 40 mph zone, ran a red light and broadsided a van carrying a mother and several children. The impact proved fatal for four of the van’s occupants: Andrea Hudson, 38, and her young passengers Boyd “Buster” Brown, 12, Matilda Wilcoxson, 13, and Eloise Wilcoxson, 12. Two other children in the van, Nolan and Charlotte Hudson, survived but suffered serious injuries.
According to court documents obtained by KOMO News, Jones had purchased the Audi just weeks before the crash and was known to have been “speeding and weaving around other traffic” before the collision. The documents also revealed that Jones’s vehicle never attempted to brake before impact and that this was his third car crash involving speed within 11 months, though he had not been cited in the previous incidents.
On April 4, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office announced that Jones had changed his plea to guilty on all felony charges. The plea agreement included four counts of vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault. King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion stated that her office “would not have accepted anything less than a guilty plea as charged on all felony counts.”
Jones, who suffered significant injuries in the crash, including broken arms and legs, was taken into custody after being released from the hospital. He is currently being held at the Maleng Regional Justice Center and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 25. The victims’ families were present and supportive of the plea agreement.
