Victim of horrific Everett crash is healing

EVERETT — Juan Quintanilla Jr. thanks God for healing his brain. He also is grateful to his wife for standing by his side.

The Kennewick man, 35, suffered a traumatic brain injury last year in a car crash in Everett. The left side of his face also was severely damaged. Quintanilla lost his left eye and multiple teeth. He has undergone numerous surgeries and says there will be more.

Prosecutors are calling the crash a crime and recently charged the driver with vehicular assault. Pedro Crenshaw, 32, reportedly was intoxicated and driving 104 mph when he lost control of his Cadillac CTS-V on E. Lowell-Larimer Road.

Crenshaw failed to appear for a court hearing earlier this month. A judge issued a $50,000 warrant for his arrest. He doesn’t have any criminal history. At the time of the crash, Crenshaw’s driver’s license was suspended for an unpaid speeding ticket.

Quintanilla and his wife had recently moved back to Washington from Texas. They were staying with Crenshaw, saving up for a place of their own.

“We were friends. I knew him from working at Boeing in San Antonio,” Quintanilla said.

He doesn’t remember the crash on Sept. 12, 2013.

Crenshaw reportedly raced out of the driveway, squealing his tires, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Cindy Larsen wrote in court papers.

He headed eastbound on E. Lowell-Larimer Road. Witnesses said Crenshaw passed two cars. They estimated that he was driving about 80 mph. The speed limit is 35 mph on the winding road.

As Crenshaw attempted to get back in the eastbound lane he lost control of his car. He drove into a ditch and struck a chicken wire fence. There were 2×4 boards attached to the top of the fence. Three of the boards crashed through the windshield and into the passenger seat. One of the boards hit Quintanilla in the face, detaching the skin and causing serious life-threatening injuries.

The Cadillac kept going through the ditch before hitting a parked Dodge Ram pickup. The force pushed that truck about 200 feet, where it hit a parked Dodge Charger, which in turn was shoved into a wooden fence.

A witness saw Crenshaw walk away from the crash. She followed him in her car as he crossed Marsh and Seattle Hill Roads. A neighbor encountered Crenshaw walking through his back yard.

“I just killed my best friend,” the man remembered hearing the stranger say.

A woman also reported seeing Crenshaw walk through her yard.

Crenshaw took off running into the woods. The woman’s husband found Crenshaw kneeling and urinating. That’s where Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies found him.

His blood was drawn three hours after the crash. Tests showed that his blood-alcohol content was .089 — slightly above the legal limit, court papers said.

An inspection of the Cadillac’s airbag control module showed that Crenshaw was driving about 104 mph about 3.5 seconds before the crash, Larsen wrote. The car was going about 70 mph when it hit the fence.

The first deputy who reached Quintanilla reported that he became conscious and began to frantically grab at his face. The deputy had to keep the man from pulling on the “remainder of his face” to prevent him from adding to his injuries.

Quintanilla was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. More than a month later he wasn’t responding to doctors’ commands to move his arms or legs.

“I was alive. I wasn’t healing mentally,” Quintanilla said.

Doctors told his wife, a nurse, that he likely would need to be moved to a nursing home for long-term care.

From what his wife tells him, he responded to her voice the day after the crash, looking at her for the first time. In the following days he began responding to commands to move. He was moved to a rehabilitation facility. He made it home about three months after the crash, Quintanilla said.

He continues to heal. The damage to the nerves on the left side of his face still gives him trouble. He not only lost teeth but his gums were severely injured.

“I feel 100 percent recovered mentally,” Quintanilla said. “But I’m still dealing with the physical effects.”

These months have tested him, but Quintanilla says his wife has given him encouragement and guidance.

“I couldn’t imagine being single, going through this,” he said.

He also is determined to join the workforce again. Quintanilla said he earned a finance degree last year. He isn’t sure he’ll be able to work in that field, but he’s certain he will find a suitable job.

“I don’t want to be sitting on a couch, collecting a disability check, watching TV,” he said. “It might be easier. I want a lot different for my life.”

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Lynnwood
Crash in Lynnwood fully blocks Highway 99

The crash, on Highway 99 at 176th Street SW, fully blocked southbound lanes. Traffic was diverted to 168th Street SW.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.