Teen Says Deadly Crash Followed Chris Brown After Party

LAKEWOOD, WA — An 18-year-old Lakewood woman is facing three charges after a deadly two-car crash on I-5 early in the morning last Friday. Zoe Phillips drank cognac and was smoking cannabis just before the crash, prosecutors and police say.

The crash happened just before 2:30 a.m. near the Pierce and King County border. Phillips lost control of her Chevrolet Cobalt, hit a guardrail, and then veered back into the southbound lanes. A pickup truck then hit Phillips' car.

Phillips' friend and passenger, Cindy L. Thach, 26, of Tacoma, was in the rear seat of the Cobalt. The first trooper on the scene said Thach was nearly decapitated when then pickup truck hit Phillips' car. A woman sitting in the front passenger seat, Kaysia M. Lucas, sustained a fractured wrist.

"I immediately smelled the strong and obvious odor of intoxicating beverage coming off of the driver's breath and the interior of the car smelled of burnt marijuana. The driver appeared under the age of 21. The driver's eyes were bloodshot red and watery, her eyelids were droopy, and she was dazed and lethargic. I observed a jar in the center console which appeared to contain marijuana or was used to hold marijuana. Pipes, which appeared to be used to smoke marijuana, were near the driver's seat," a Washington State Patrol trooper told investigators about what he saw when he looked inside the car.

Phillips told the trooper she and her friends had gone to an after-party in Seattle following the Chris Brown concert at the Tacoma Dome. She told police she had been drinking Hennessey cognac and smoked marijuana about an hour before getting in her car to drive home, court records say.

Phillips was then taken to Tacoma General, where she "became uncontrollable," court records say. Phillips told doctors she was injured the worst of anyone involved in the crash because of how anxious she had become.

Pierce County prosecutors are seeking charges of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. Phillips was being held in the Pierce County Jail on $50,000 bail, and her next court date is scheduled for Sept. 12.