Driver gets 7 years for hit and run that left Bellingham mother with ... - Bellingham Herald
A Bellingham man was sentenced to seven years in prison Thursday, April 23, for a hit and run that has left a mother of three unable to speak or walk. 24, 2013, as the bars were letting out on a weekend in downtown Bellingham, Emma Lee Briceno crossed East Chestnut Street at Railroad Avenue. Then the Lincoln hit Briceno. The driver continued on Chestnut, smacking the Lincoln into a Ford F-350 parallel-parked alongside the Herald Building. “He left my daughter to die in the street,” Briceno’s father, Brad Youngquist, said in court Thursday morning. The car belonged to the fiancée of felon Cory Ira Mezo, 31. Around 5 that morning James Lorden called 911 saying he’d been a passenger in the front seat of the car. He said the driver’s name was Cory. Lorden told police he’d been bar-hopping downtown that night with a friend, Courtney Prosser, until 1:30 a. m. when Cory Mezo picked them up. According to Lorden’s story, within seconds of picking up the passengers Mezo was “driving crazy. Some witnesses said the driver was pulling a “donut” in the intersection as he hit the woman. After the crash Mezo dropped off the passengers in a neighborhood, according to Lorden. The abandoned Lincoln was found around 9:30 a. m. in a parking lot at Western Washington University. Source: www.bellinghamherald.com
