A Yakima County judge handed down the maximum possible sentence to a Wapato man convicted in a 2021 drunken-driving crash that left two women with life-altering injuries. Joseph Anthony Sanchey, 30, was driving with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit when he crashed into a Honda Civic driven by Zoe Harding at the Jones Road intersection with U.S. Highway 97 near Wapato on Sept. 29, 2021. Harding suffered a fractured spine, a lacerated liver and other severe injuries, while Sanchey’s passenger, Priscilla Tulee, lost part of a leg in the crash. Both prosecutors and Sanchey’s own attorney had recommended a three-month sentence, but the judge sided with the victims and imposed nine months, the maximum allowed under state law.
According to the Yakima Herald-Republic, Sanchey entered an Alford plea to vehicular assault in Yakima County Superior Court in August 2026, allowing him to maintain his innocence while acknowledging prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him at trial. Judge James Elliott said he struggled with the decision to override the joint sentencing recommendation but ultimately agreed with Harding’s family that the maximum term was warranted. Harding, who was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center and hospitalized for 18 days, told the court that “three months in prison for Joseph Sanchey is nothing compared to my lifelong sentence of pain,” according to the outlet. The paper reported that Washington State Patrol investigated the crash and that neither Sanchey nor Tulee was wearing a seatbelt at the time.
