CLARKSTON, WA – Bond was set at $200,000 for a man who has had multiple charges of Driving Under the Influence – including a December 2013 incident during which he crashed his 2012 Toyota Prius into a 1992 Geo Metro driven by 53-year-old Paul Stuk. Kyle Rios was 24-years-old at the time of the crash which claimed the life of the Peck man. His blood alcohol concentration was more than three times the legal limit (0.263) and he was driving at a high rate of speed when he collided with Stuk near the intersection of 21st and East Main Streets at 4:39 a.m., according to officials at the time.
Rios fled the scene but was later arrested. He was sentenced in 2017 to six years in prison with a requirement to serve three years before becoming eligible for parole.
Rios has had two DUI’s in Nez Perce County this year – in January and July.
On Monday night, the 34-year-old Rios was a passenger in a car that had been stopped in Lewiston at 16th Avenue and 17th Street for a DUI investigation. The driver, identified as 38-year-old Maria Tannehill, was taken into custody and charged with a DUI.
“During the DUI traffic stop, Rios, without permission, jumped in the driver’s seat of the violator vehicle and fled,” according to an Asotin County Probable Cause Affidavit. “The female driver and owner, Maria, reported to L.P.D. Officers she only knew the male for the night from a bar. Maria did not know Rios’ last name and per L.P.D. [Officers] involved, she reported the vehicle stolen.”
An Attempt to Locate for the 2015 Honda Odyssey van was sent out by Lewiston dispatchers.
At around 12:15 a.m., just 15 minutes after the alleged vehicle theft, the affidavit says a Clarkston Police officer observed the vehicle come off the Southway Bridge into Clarkston and then proceed northbound on 5th Street, the document says, adding that he followed Rios to 6th Street, then westbound on Libby Street, and finally northbound on 7th Street.
“In the 1100 block of 7th Street…I activated my emergency lighting equipment and got Rios stopped,” the officer says in the document. “Three other fully marked Clarkston Police Department and Asotin County Sheriff’s Office vehicles arrived with all emergency lighting equipment activated.”
The officers conducted a high-risk felony stop.
“I issued verbal commands for Rios to exit,” the document says. “Rios rolled the window down and did not comply with…orders to display his hands and/or exit the vehicle.”
Eventually, Rios did display his hands but then reached back inside and put his seatbelt back on, the affidavit says.
“Rios became verbally hostile and began yelling at law enforcement,” according to the affidavit.
Officers boxed the vehicle in and Rios agreed to step out. He was then detained and placed into handcuffs.
During the arrest, the officer reportedly witnessed Rios had “blood shot and water eyes with droopy eye lids, slurred speech, disorderly behavior, and speech, slow to follow directions, inability to follow simple directions, difficulty balancing/walking, inability to control bodily fluids, and the OBVIOUS odor of metabolized alcohol (intoxicants) emanatng from his person and breath,” the affidavit adds.
Rios was secured in an officer’s patrol car and he “immediately passed out,” according to the document.
“I was unable to gain consciousness from Rios from multiple hard sternum rubs,” the affidavit says. “I continued to see Rios breathing normally.”
City of Clarkston Medics responded to the scene and Rios eventually regained consciousness and denied medical assistance.
City of Clarkston Medics responded to the scene and Rios eventually regained consciousness and denied medical assistance.
Rios was transported directly to the TriStateHealth emergency room for medical clearance and to apply for a search warrant for blood, the document says.
“Rios was secured in a safe hospital Emergency Department room accompanied by other patrol units,” the officer says in the affidavit. During this time, the officer obtained a search warrant but Rios reportedly refused to comply with it for approximately 30 minutes.
“At 01:43 hours, after exhausting attempts to de-escalate Rios and gain his compliance, he allowed qualified medical staff [to] draw two vials of his blood,” the officer adds.
Rios was then transported to the Asotin County Jail on charges of Felony DUI, Obstruction, and Driving Without an Ignition Interlock.
During the course of the search warrant execution, Lewiston Police advised that the vehicle’s owner was now not cooperative with her DUI investigation and refused to sign her vehicle as stolen.
Meanwhile, Clarkston Police also found out that psychedelic mushrooms were allegedly found in Tannehill’s vehicle during the Lewiston DUI stop. Rios had made persistent “mention of dark spirits, the devil, [and] his ownership of this land,” the officer says in the affidavit.
