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Fatal DUI victim's daughter: ‘Please don't drink & drive'

By Amy Clancy
By Amy Clancy
On the day Kayla Marie Schmidt’s bail was set at $35,000 for allegedly killing a man while driving under the influence, the victim’s daughter turned her pain into action.
Nathalee Gonzalez invited reporters and photographers to the Puyallup Police Department Wednesday afternoon to talk about her beloved father, Jose Gonzalez Olaguez, and to speak out against driving under the influence. 
The 16-year-old asked anyone who ever has a drink “to not walk into a car knowing you are past the influence, and to stop and realize that you might change a life forever.”
“I believe everyone deserves a happy ending when they die, but you Kayla, you deserve to deal with what you have done to me and my father.  My father was a wonderful person,” Gonzalez said, addressing the woman suspected of killing her father by name.
The 24-year-old Schmidt appeared somber as she walked into a Tacoma courtroom Wednesday afternoon, hours after being charged with vehicular homicide. 
According to Pierce County Superior Court documents, Schmidt thought she hit a parked car late Monday night, and admitted to police she’d been drinking, before she allegedly slammed her pickup truck into a car driven Gonzalez Olaguez.
Puyallup police officers reported smelling alcohol on Schmidt’s breath and said her speech was slurred. 
It has not yet been confirmed whether Schmidt was legally drunk at the time because, according to police, she only pretended to blow during two breathalyzer tests shortly after the crash. Schmidt’s blood was drawn and sent to the Washington State Toxicology Lab for analysis.
The 46-year old Gonzalez Olaguez was on his way home from work when he was killed. 
His ex-wife expressed disappointment that the suspect’s bail was set at only $35,000. 
“I think that’s pretty low because I’ve heard of other people doing less things and getting a higher bail,” Maria Lopez said, with her daughter by her side. “What’s a person’s life worth?”
Judge Meagan Foley did order mandatory alcohol monitoring for Schmidt should she bail out of jail, citing a 2012 case where the Graham woman was charged with an alcohol-related domestic violence assault.
No family members were in court to support Schmidt, but friend Erica Davies was there. 
“Kayla is a very big-hearted person and this is very out of her character,” she said. “This isn’t something I would ever have imagined happening, and I just hope the best for everyone involved.”

Cox Media Group

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