Suspect’s past puts him back in jail
A Spokane Valley man charged with vehicular homicide last month enjoyed less than a month of freedom on bail before his past caught up with him.
Craig Alan Schiering, 42, of 3904 N. Lockwood Road, posted bail after his arrest March 24 for allegedly running over an acquaintance following a loud discussion at a North Division gasoline station. But he had other charges pending at the time, and was charged later the same day in an unrelated drug-possession case.
A judge issued a warrant last week in the drug case, and Schiering was hauled back to jail. He remained there Wednesday in lieu of $90,100 in bail on the drug charge, the vehicular homicide charge and three charges from last year for which he allegedly failed to appear: first- and second-degree criminal trespass and misdemeanor theft.
He also is charged with third-degree driving with a suspended license March 24, when he allegedly ran over and killed Brett Leroy Hollenbeck at the Holiday gasoline station at 9720 N. Division.
Schiering is scheduled for trial in June on the vehicular homicide and drug-possession charges.
According to court documents, witness testimony indicates Schiering and Hollenbeck had agreed to meet at the Holiday station, where Hollenbeck approached the passenger window of Schiering’s pickup about 2:40 a.m. The two had a loud, possibly heated discussion for a minute or two, and Hollenbeck started to walk back to his own pickup.
Charles E. Pearson Jr. said Hollenbeck spoke an expletive as Schiering’s truck began to move, and Hollenbeck briefly kept pace with it before being run over by a 20- to 25-foot flatbed trailer Schiering was towing. Pearson and his father, Charles E. Pearson Sr., had been passengers in Hollenbeck’s pickup.
Truck driver Jack J. Schoonover, who was delivering gasoline to the station, said Schiering was accelerating hard when his trailer knocked Hollenbeck face down onto the pavement. The trailer’s tires bounced two to three feet when they rolled over Hollenbeck, and then fell onto Hollenbeck’s back and head.
Schoonover said Schiering was driving away when Charles E. Pearson Sr. ran to Schiering’s pickup and told him to stop. The elder Pearson told sheriff’s deputies he had known Schiering for years.
According to court documents, Schiering told a Spokane police officer he and Hollenbeck had arranged a rendezvous at the Holiday station. The documents offer no explanation for the meeting.
The officer who interviewed Schiering reported finding a bottle of hydrocodone in his pocket. The narcotic medicine had been prescribed to Schiering, but police said their investigation would consider whether the medicine contributed to the fatal incident.
Schiering’s drug-possession charge stems from a Sept. 12, 2005, speeding stop in which an officer said Schiering tossed a golf-ball-size chunk of crystal methamphetamine out his window before pulling over.
Court records show Schiering has an extensive criminal history that includes convictions in Monroe County, Florida, and in King County, Wash., for drug possession, car theft, first-degree trafficking in stolen property, second-degree burglary and three counts of possession of stolen property.
A second-degree burglary charge in Spokane County was dropped in 2002 when Schiering pleaded guilty to residential burglary, first-degree theft, second-degree malicious mischief and four counts of possessing stolen property. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay $41,740 in that plea bargain.