She wrecked a stolen car in Pierce County, killing her friend. She’s now been sentenced

A 29-year-old woman has been sentenced after pleading guilty to crashing a stolen car in 2021 that killed a passenger in Buckley.

Brittany McClain was charged with vehicular homicide, felony driving under the influence and reckless driving for the June 10, 2021 incident that killed 26-year-old Michael Vernon Woody. McClain was driving with methamphetamine in her system prior to the crash, records show.

McClain pleaded guilty to the charges on Thursday in Pierce County Superior Court. She also pleaded guilty to taking a motor vehicle without permission and attempting to elude in unrelated incidents. On April 19, 2020, McClain refused to stop after a police officer in King County attempted to pull her over. A day earlier in King County, she drove a stolen Acura, documents show.

Pierce County judge Gary Johnson sentenced McClain to four years in prison on Thursday, records show.

Incident Details

McClain was driving east on state Route 410 into Buckley just after midnight when she lost control at an intersection. The car crashed into a pole, causing the vehicle to roll onto its roof, documents show. Woody was unconscious and bleeding when police arrived.

Woody was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup where he was pronounced deceased. An obituary for Woody states that he was a father to a 2-year-old boy. McClain also wrote in her guilty plea document that Woody was her friend.

McClain was taken to the hospital for her injuries. Her blood was drawn, and a toxicology reported returned in June showing that she had 0.74 mg/L of methamphetamine in her system, prosecutors wrote.

Documents show that a police officer witnessed the crash and was at the scene within seconds. He reported seeing the two-door sedan going the speed limit on the highway behind a pickup truck. Both vehicles “accelerated rapidly” in the 29000 block of state Route 410. The Honda lost control and crashed.

Prosecutors wrote that McClain crawled out of the vehicle. While she was checked for injuries, she told police she was in the backseat, and the driver had run away. A witness had video of the crash which did not show anyone running away.

Detectives determined it was McClain who was driving the sedan that was reported stolen from Kent. McClain claimed she had not used meth in a month, but drug paraphernalia was recovered inside the vehicle.