MAN GETS 6 YEARS IN HIT-AND-RUN DEATH
VICTIM'S FAMILY PLEADS FOR HARSH TERM

By Jack Hopkins P-I Reporter

Saturday, May 21, 1994

Section: News, Page: B2

A 22-year-old ((age)) Auburn man who has been involved in two fatal traffic incidents during the past six years was sentenced yesterday to 6 1/4 years in prison for killing a 14-year-old boy when he ran down three bicyclists last summer.

King County Superior Court Judge Harriett Cody gave that punishment to Christopher Edwin Torkelson after hearing the victim's family members plead for a harsh punishment.

``May God have mercy on his soul, but he will get none from us," Odette Winship, the 14-year-old boy's aunt, told Cody.

Winship lashed out at Torkelson for speeding off after hitting Rolando Rosario Jr., who was killed while bicycling with friends in the 5000 block of Kersey Way Southeast in Auburn.

Rolando's brother, Randy, 12, and a cousin, Jason Anton, 13, also were injured in the Aug. 17 collision.

Torkelson didn't stop to help the boys and drove his damaged van more than a mile from the scene before abandoning it and fleeing into nearby woods on foot.

``Most of us couldn't hit an animal and not stop," Winship told the judge.

``He hit three boys and ran."

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Mike Hogan contended during Torkelson's trial that Torkelson was drunk and driving without regard for the safety of others when he slammed his vehicle into the bicyclists.

Jurors weren't convinced Torkelson was drunk, but convicted him of vehicular homicide and felony hit-and-run after unanimously agreeing he had driven without concern for others.

Torkelson, who was on probation for a drunken-driving charge in Thurston County when he struck the bicyclists, declined to give a statement to the judge before he was sentenced.

His father, Ed Torkelson, told Cody the family is standing by him. ``We know he has done things wrong, and we are not going to abandon him. . . . This is and can be a turning point in his life," he said.

Defense attorney Jim Short told Cody that Rosario's death was a tragic accident that could have happened to anyone.

But Cody didn't see it that way.

``The death of Rolando was preventable," she said, urging Torkelson to get treatment for drug and alcohol problems when he is released from prison.

Torkelson was not charged with a crime in his first fatal accident. That occurred in Lewis County in 1988 when the car he was driving rolled over and killed a passenger.

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