EVERETT, Wash. — One of Snohomish County’s most anticipated trials is set to begin Friday, involving an undocumented immigrant accused of driving impaired and causing the death of a Washington State Patrol trooper.
Raul Benitez-Santana, 33, faces charges of driving drunk and crashing into the back of a state patrol cruiser on Interstate 5 near Marysville on March 2, 2024. The collision resulted in the death of Trooper Christopher Gadd, 27, who was seated in the driver’s seat of the patrol car at the time.
Investigators allege that Benitez-Santana was traveling at speeds exceeding 100 mph when the crash occurred.
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Benitez-Santana is a citizen of Mexico and was in the U.S. illegally at the time he was arrested for Trooper Gadd’s death. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) placed an immigration detainer on him within a week of when he was booked into the Snohomish County jail for charges of vehicular homicide.
As a result, defense attorneys alleged pretrial publicity of the immigration status tainted the potential jury pool. They argued prosecutors violated the state’s sanctuary laws by ‘colluding’ with ICE in the weeks after charges were filed.
The accusation against Mr. Benitez-Santana includes the charged question of whether a Latino man, who has been maligned by the media, the public, and elected officials, as an undocumented Mexican criminal, unlawfully caused the death of a police officer,” the defense argued. “The state reasonably should have known that including information about the client’s immigration status in a publicly filed court document would result in its dissemination to the public and could materially prejudice the adjudicative process.
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In response, a judge denied the defense’s motion to halt a trial, noting that the correspondence between prosecutors and ICE happened after the detainer was already in place.
“I don’t see any information in the record for the court to conclude that the state actively pursued or contacted ICE to obtain the initial detainer,” Judge Karen Moore said.
Gadd served with the state patrol for 2.5 years before his death. He left behind a wife and young daughter, as well as his father, who is also a state trooper, his mother, and a sister who works as a trooper in Texas.
Gadd was the 33rd member of the state patrol to die in the line of duty.
