A teenage driver who told police he was severely sleep-deprived and driving as fast as he could when he killed a female friend was sentenced to two years in prison Thursday.
Noah Ashton Boege was 18 at the time of the rollover crash in the 1200 block of the East Historic Columbia River Highway in Troutdale about 4 a.m. on Aug. 24, 2018.
Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies and Gresham police officers arrived to find Sarah Pearson, 21, dead on the roadway. Boege told authorities that she was his girlfriend.
Boege’s Mercury Cougar sedan had come to a rest on its roof along a curve in the road. The posted speed limit was 35 mph, with an advisory speed of 30 mph and investigators believe Boege was driving more than twice the posted speed limit.
Noah Ashton Boege, now 19, killed a female friend in August 2018 while speeding and driving recklessly, according to the prosecution. (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)
Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide.
Police originally thought Boege was under the influence of marijuana, but prosecutors pursued the case based on the theory that he was overtired and drove recklessly. According to a probable cause affidavit filed by the prosecution, Boege said he’d last used marijuana 10 days before the crash and he later amended that to say it had been four days. Boege also told investigators he hadn’t slept much over the past couple of nights, according to the affidavit.
Boege told police he drives fast and recklessly a lot and that a couple of days earlier he had sped across the Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge, also known as the Interstate 205 bridge, at 130 mph.
Boege told jailers he had completed 11th grade, was working full time for a manufacturer and had received treatment in the past for substance abuse and his mental health. He said he’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder.
In a letter that Pearson’s mother wrote to Multnomah County Circuit Judge Eric Bloch, she said her daughter was “so sweet and special." She described how her daughter’s death had hurt her family.
In a news release after the hearing, Deputy Attorney Parakram Singh, who prosecuted the case, added: “Reckless driving kills.”
-- Aimee Green
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