PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — The driver of a speeding car involved in a fatal crash while speeding at an estimated 100 miles per hour told Pierce County deputies he would “prove he was God,” and denied being in a collision after his car plowed over an SUV being driven by a 31-year-old mother of two small children.
Nina Fournier, a woman described by friends as an “inspiring woman,” and “the kindest person they’d ever met,” likely died instantly in the impact, say investigators.
The 32-year-old driver, arrested for vehicular homicide, appeared in Pierce County court by video in a wheelchair.
Pierce Remington Lowell Pearson is charged with vehicular homicide, accused of driving 100 miles an hour in a 35 mile-per-hour zone while impaired on drugs which may have included heroin and pill, according to court information.
Investigators say multiple 911 callers reported seeing Pearson speeding for several miles before he entered the intersection of 128th Street East and Canyon Road East in Puyallup, when his car slammed into and over a SUV from behind. Pearson’s sedan flipped and landed on its roof.
Jim Fournier, the victim’s father, appealed to Judge Thomas Patrick Quinlan Jr. to keep Pearson behind bars.
“Mr. Pearson here was driving for miles and miles at 100 miles an hour,” Fournier said. “At every milepost he could have decided to slow down and he did not.”
Court documents say Pearson was completely incoherent, admitting he was on heroin and pills and had no idea he’d been in a crash. In court documents, deputies noted: “He was going to prove he was God and he had been driving since yesterday.”
Prosecutors say Pearson has no driver’s license, but he does have a record in Oregon and Utah, where he has been arrested for DUI, hit and run, and theft.
“My daughter had two children,” Fournier said. “A 6-yea-old and a 10-year-old. It’s been devastating. That’s what I’d like to say.”
Today, grieving family and friends of Nina Fournier gathered where she died. Judge Quinlan ordered Pearson to be held on $500,000 bail, despite the request from Fournier, who asked for the bail amount to double.
“I would like to see the bail increase to at least a million dollars to make sure that Mr. Pearson here does not try to jump,” he said.