Yakima driver sentenced to 9 months in jail for fatal Hermiston hit-and-run
By Griffin Beach on Friday, August 21st, 2026 in Columbia Basin News Columbia Basin Top Stories
HERMISTON – A Yakima will spend nine months in jail after pleading no-contest to criminally negligent homicide and failure to perform duties charges in a fatal December 2025 hit-and-run in Hermiston.
Breann Mayberry, 31, was killed after being struck by a semi-truck driven by Timothy Brown, 66, in the early morning hours of Dec. 1, 2025. Prosecutors said they believed Mayberry was trying to reach the Stepping Stones shelter when she crossed U.S. Highway 395. She was in the center turn lane when Brown struck her while trying to pass another vehicle.
Brown’s attorney, Brandon Foy of Hermiston, said an aggressive driver had been brake-checking Brown’s truck. Brown pulled into the turn lane and accelerated to roughly 75 mph to pass the vehicle, which sped up to block him from re-entering the traffic lane.
Prosecutors said Brown passed the crash scene twice after the incident — first while being driven back to a Walmart distribution center after his truck broke down from the impact, and again when his employer was driving him back to Washington.
Foy said Brown did not realize he had struck a person, adding that Brown immediately returned to answer questions when law enforcement contacted him.
“It’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life,” Brown said during his plea and sentencing hearing Friday. “I think about it every day.”
Mayberry’s mother, Lisa Gust, was among the family members who gave victim impact statements before sentencing.
“Most will never understand unless they personally lost a child,” Gust said. “This is my life sentence.”
Under the plea agreement, Brown will serve five years of probation in lieu of an 18-month jail sentence for criminally negligent homicide. On the charge of failure to perform duties of driver to seriously injured persons, Brown will serve a nine-month jail sentence followed by two years of post-prison supervision.
Officers took Brown into custody immediately following Friday’s hearing.
