Meth user accused in toddler’s death

Lawyers for Michael Q. Beckley, a strung-out meth user accused of vehicular homicide for crashing into a car last May and killing a baby in her car seat, are calling prosecutors “vindictive” for seeking to add a second charge of driving with a suspended license.

Motions in the Beckley case, scheduled for trial June 2 after a series of delays, will be heard today in the courtroom of Spokane County Superior Court Judge Michael Price.

Beckley’s public defenders are seeking to exclude any evidence that the 34-year-old was convicted of driving with a suspended license in 1998 or that his license was suspended at the time of last year’s accident – saying the information would “create hostility and prejudice in the eyes of the jury.”

The Spokane County public defender’s office says the Beckley case was being plea bargained until early May – but the bargaining stopped after they filed motions to exclude evidence of his prior suspended licenses and meth use shown in a blood sample drawn at the hospital shortly after the accident. They’ve cried foul, saying the prosecutors’ office is being vindictive.

Prosecutors, in motions filed May 13, have denied they’ve behaved unfairly toward Beckley, saying they’re within their rights to add a charge of third-degree driving with license suspended.

According to a Washington State Patrol summary of the accident, Beckley was driving a Chevy Blazer south on U.S. Route 2 at Day-Mt. Spokane Road on May 23, 2007, when he crashed into Belle Autry’s Subaru, which was stopped for a red light. Beckley was traveling about 55 mph when he hit Autry’s vehicle.

Gabriella “Gabby” Autry, 22 months, suffered severe head injuries and was declared brain dead two days later.

Beckley was injured and transported to the hospital, but he fled after treatment.

Secret Witness offered a $1,000 reward for finding Beckley, who had an extensive criminal history, including 11 felony convictions and 20 felony warrants. He was arrested June 2, 2007, inside a house in the 4400 block of North Atlantic Street.

Beckley told law enforcement officers he didn’t see the traffic light, in part because he was recovering from a methamphetamine binge and also because he was distracted by a cell phone.

The trial was first scheduled for August, then postponed until November, then February, now June. The delays have been excruciating, Belle and Steve Autry told The Spokesman-Review last year.

Belle Autry said it had taken eight years to conceive Gabby, and she and her husband were uncertain whether they could ever have more children.

“A part of me has died,” she said.