The family of the Northern California teenage girl killed in personal watercraft crash earlier this month wants to make a personal plea for the maximum penalty when the 20-year-old Australian tourist responsible for her death is sentenced in September.
Tyson Dagley, a Brisbane carpet layer, pleaded no contest Thursday morning to a charge of third-degree negligent homicide in causing the death of Kristen Fonseca of Vacaville, Calif., on Aug. 6.
Dagley will be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 5 by Circuit Judge Richard Perkins. He faces a maximum jail term of one year and a $2,000 fine for third-degree negligent homicide. Dagley has been out on $100,000 bail since Monday.
Friends and family raised the cash, his attorney, Walter Rodby, said, and Dagley was released after spending 12 days in jail.
Mario Canton, Fonseca’s stepfather, said the family expected that Dagley would work out a plea agreement.
Canton said he hopes that Dagley "will be held accountable to the maximum sentence." With so many expenses surrounding his daughter’s death, Canton said, he hopes the family can raise the money to be in Hawaii to address both Perkins and Dagley at the Sept. 5 sentencing hearing.
"We like to have our voices heard," said Canton, who last week filed a wrongful-death suit in Circuit Court against Dagley and Aloha Jet Ski, which rented personal watercraft to Fonseca and Dagley.
Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell said he would confer with the Cantons before submitting his sentencing recommendation to Perkins.
Perkins also ordered Dagley to turn in his Australian passport to the court. Dagley told Perkins that he will comply and will be in Hawaii until his September court date.
Rodby asked Perkins to consider giving Dagley a deferred acceptance of a no-contest plea, which would mean that the misdemeanor conviction would be taken off his U.S. record if he stays out of trouble for a year.
Perkins also advised Dagley that by entering a no-contest plea he was waiving the opportunity for a jury trial and that because he is not a U.S. citizen, he would not be allowed to re-enter the United States.
Perkins also said a pre-sentencing report is needed because of Dagley’s age.
Dagley’s parents, Alan and Ann Dagley, were in court Thursday morning. Dagley wasn’t wearing the neck brace he had worn during his incarceration.
He was hunched over and looked gaunt after 12 days of incarceration, and appeared as if he hadn’t slept.He suffered spinal injuries and a concussion in the crash, his lawyer has said.
At times, Dagley sat with his head in his hands in the front row of the third-floor courtroom as he waited for the hearing to begin.
Police said Dagley wasn’t paying attention when his rented Yamaha WaveRunner rammed the back of Fonseca’s WaveRunner at Keehi Lagoon on Aug. 5. She died of a brain injury a day later. He was arrested Aug. 9 in the lobby of the Ala Moana Hotel.
Detectives say Dagley was standing on his WaveRunner before it hit Fonseca’s watercraft from behind. They say he was looking at his girlfriend, who was taking video and photos, and didn’t pay attention to where he was going. Prosecutors said Dagley was operating the watercraft recklessly at speeds of between 40 and 45 mph.
His girlfriend, Natasha Ryan, 21, was arrested and charged with hindering prosecution for allegedly deleting a video showing the crash. She is free on $500 bail.
Ryan is expected to enter a plea at her arraignment in District Court on Sept. 7. There were no restrictions on her bail, and she retained her Australian passport. Hindering prosecution is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison.
Ryan had told homicide detectives that Dagley was sitting and looking straight ahead before the collision and that she didn’t see the crash.
However, a forensic computer examiner recovered two deleted videos from the memory stick in Ryan’s camera, which showed the crash. The report said that in the video, Dagley appears to be standing on the watercraft.
Rodby, Dagley’s lawyer, is also representing Ryan.
Dagley told an Australian television station this week that he was "just a 20-year-old on a jet ski having fun" when the accident occurred. "I’d give anything for her to be back," he said. "In the end I’d rather it be me than her."
His father has said the couple saved for two years for a dream vacation to Hawaii.
An Australian news crew carried a live feed of Thursday’s arraignment, which was aired on its Friday morning show.
Dagley and his parents declined to comment as they left the courthouse.
