The girlfriend of the Australian tourist convicted of fatally injuring a Northern California teenage girl in a personal watercraft crash in Keehi Lagoon plans to enter a plea of no contest to a misdemeanor charge of misleading police during the criminal investigation.
Under a plea by mail submitted to Honolulu District Court on Tuesday, Natasha Ryan, 21, admitted that she purposely deleted video she had taken of the Aug. 5 accident that killed Kristen Fonseca, 16, of Vacaville, Calif.
Ryan’s lawyer, Walter Rodby, submitted her plea to District Judge Leslie Hayashi on Tuesday morning. Hayashi continued the case until Dec. 14 while Rodby works out terms with Ryan and the prosecution.
Ryan, a Brisbane dental hygienist, would not spend any time in jail under the proposed plea. She had faced a maximum jail term of one year. She would also be fined $1,000 — half of the maximum penalty.
Ryan left Hawaii following the incident and is free on $500 bail.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Darryl Miyahira told Hayashi there was "no excuse" for what Ryan did and that she should be fined the maximum $2,000 for the crime of second-degree hindering prosecution. Rodby requested that Ryan be fined $500, the amount she posted as bail.
Miyahira also objected to Rodby’s proposal that the judge grant Ryan a deferred acceptance of her no-contest plea, which means that if she stays out of trouble for six months, the offense would be wiped off her U.S. criminal record.
Hayashi pointed out that Ryan’s boyfriend, Tyson Dagley, was granted a deferral after he pleaded no contest for causing Fonseca’s death.
Rodby said he had received more than 50 letters and emails in support of Ryan.
In his request for a $2,000 fine, Miyahira said two days had elapsed before Ryan was interrogated by police and told detectives that she didn’t take videos of the accident.
"She had time to reflect on her actions," Miyahira told the judge.
Miyahira said Ryan showed a "high degree of criminality" when she lied to police.
But Rodby said Ryan was in Hawaii without the support of friends or family and hadn’t slept for two days before she was interrogated in his office.
Rodby said that since returning to Australia, Ryan has been getting counseling for post-traumatic stress.
Dagley was driving a rented watercraft Aug. 5 when it hit Fonseca’s watercraft from behind. Dagley admitted he was not paying attention to where he was going, only looking at his girlfriend, who was taking video and photos of him.
Dagley pleaded no contest in September to third-degree negligent homicide and was sentenced to the 12 days he had spent in jail, unable to make bail. He also was ordered to pay the Fonseca family $78,000 in restitution.
Rodby said Dagley’s only obligation now is to mail his monthly restitution payment to the courts here.
Ryan had told police that Dagley was going slow or at medium speed throughout his rides and before the collision was sitting down and looking straight ahead. She said she didn’t see the collision and didn’t take photos of it.
A Honolulu police forensic computer technician was able to recover two deleted video segments — one showing the crash — from the memory card in Ryan’s Olympus camera, police said. In the video, Dagley appears to be standing on the watercraft, the police report said.
Fonseca’s family has filed a wrongful death suit in Circuit Court against Dagley and Aloha Jet Ski Rental.
