AUBURN, Wash. — A man accused of organizing a street racing event where two women were killed and another was injured was arrested Tuesday morning.
At the event in Auburn on Nov. 27, 2020, three women were hit by a driver who was trying to “swing” or “drift” and lost control, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Kelly Acosta, 23, and Makenna Heustis, 19, were killed. Haleigh Starnes was injured.
Jerick Judd, the alleged organizer, was charged with two counts of accomplice to vehicular homicide. He is held on $100,000 bail, according to King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg.
“It underscores the very danger to public safety, the very danger to every spectator that’s attracted to these events,” Satterberg said.
Satterberg said this is the first time the office has filed accomplice charges against a street racing organizer in this way.
"We hope that people understand that promoting illegal racing makes you just as complicit as actually participating in the racing," Satterberg said. "You don’t have to actually drive the car."
Prosecutors say Judd operated an Instagram account and shared the time and location of the street racing event. Detectives connected the account, which was a car club page, to Judd as the primary user.
Judd continued to promote street racing after the November event, including one last month, according to prosecutors.
The driver, Rondale Hendricks, was charged earlier this year with two counts of vehicular homicide and one count of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant. He is scheduled for trial starting Dec. 7.