A federal judge has sentenced a Wapato man to nearly five years in prison for a 2019 driving under the influence crash that killed four citizens of the Yakama Nation.
Leland James Finley, 28, had pleaded guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of assault resulting in serious bodily injury in connection with the May 2019 crash on the Yakama Nation Reservation.
U.S. District Court Judge Sal Mendoza sentenced Finley on May 31 in Richland, the Yakama Herald-Republic reports.
Authorities said Finley was driving an SUV with five passengers when he drove in front of a semitrailer at an intersection on U.S. Highway 97 just south of Toppenish. Four of the six people in the SUV were killed. Finley and another passenger were injured.
The Yakima County Coroner’s Office identified the victims as 41-year-old Frances Northover, of Bellingham; 61-year-old Susan Brown, of Yakima; 21-year-old Matt Brown-Washington, of Wapato; and 39-year-old Michelle Untuch, of Toppenish.
