Teen who crashed overloaded Jetta receives sentence

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County teen pleaded guilty Wednesday to adult misdemeanor charges in connection with a car crash that injured one of his passengers.

Jaycob Jess Almeda was charged with reckless driving, leaving the scene of an injury crash and driving without privileges following a crash on Center Valley Road in June.

As many as eight teens were in the Volkswagen Jetta. The group was allegedly returning from an underage drinking party in the Cabinet Mountains, according to court documents.

Authorities learned of the crash after several of the teens turned up at Bonner General Health’s emergency department for treatment.

One of the passengers in the overloaded sedan suffered a broken arm. Court documents did not specify if there were additional injuries.

Almeda is 17, although he was prosecuted as an adult.

In exchange for pleas of guilt, the driving without privileges charge was dismissed.

Judge Gaylen Box imposed a 180-day jail sentence with 150 days suspended, court records show. Almeda was given credit for 13 days of incarceration he’s already serve and the balance of the custodial term was converted to 136 hours in the county’s work-in-lieu-of-detention program.

Almeda was fined $2,000, but all but $500 of that sum was suspended. He was also placed on probation for two years.

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