Circumstantial Evidence At Center Of Hit-Run Trial -- Auburn Man Charged In Young Bicyclist's Death

No one saw Christopher Torkelson allegedly ram his van into three teenage cousins on bicycles, killing one, as they pedaled up a hill in Auburn the night of Aug. 17.

And no one saw Torkelson's beige van in the area before the accident claimed the life of 14-year-old Rolando Rosario Jr.

But Torkelson, 22, of Auburn, was the driver, Deputy Prosecutor Michael Hogan told a Superior Court jury yesterday during opening arguments in Torkelson's trial on charges of vehicular homicide and hit and run.

The accident occurred five days after, and a few miles from, an accident in downtown Auburn that claimed the life of 18-year-old Billy Finnegan. William Wayne was sentenced earlier this year to 12 years in prison in that case.

The two cases raised awareness about drunken driving and were instrumental in the Auburn City Council's decision last year to lower its legal drinking limit from a blood-alcohol level of 0.10 to 0.08.

Hogan told the jury that shortly after the accident two people nearby saw Torkelson's van, smoking and missing a rearview mirror - which later was found at the accident scene.

Hogan said other circumstantial evidence also would show Torkelson was the driver and that he had been drinking that night.

Defense attorneys said it's uncertain who was driving the van because there were no witnesses. They said the boys' bikes were in the roadway when they were hit.

Hogan said Torkelson did not attempt to brake during the accident in the 5000 block of Kersey Way Southeast.

Rosario, a popular athlete at Auburn's Olympic Junior High School, died instantly of head and neck injuries. His brother, Rhandy Rosario, 13, and cousin, Jason Anton, 14, also were hurt.

Yesterday Rolando Rosario's parents sat quietly, praying at times, as they listened to testimony.

After the accident, Hogan asserted, Torkelson drove onto a nearby road and stopped in front of a house. A boy at the house, Nathan Gould, and his father saw the van.

The father called police, and the driver of the van, described as 5 feet 6 inches, fled into nearby woods. The father and son smelled alcohol, Hogan said.

Nathan later was shown a series of police photos and said two closely resembled the man behind the wheel. One of the two was of Torkelson, who was arrested three weeks later in Eastern Washington and has been in the King County Jail.

Defense attorney Jim Short told the jury the Goulds were uncertain whether the alcohol they smelled came from Torkelson or the van. He said Torkelson had been living in the van and that open beer bottles might have been there for days.

The trial is expected to last a week.

If convicted, Torkelson could face up to five years in prison. At the time of the accident, he was in a deferred-prosecution program for his arrest on an alleged DWI in Thurston County.

He also was involved in a fatal accident in 1988. A car that Torkelson said he was driving went off a road in Lewis County, killing Robert Carlson, 24, of Auburn.

Police said Torkelson's blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit, but no charges were filed because prosecutors had no witnesses to corroborate that Torkelson was the driver.