Bend-area woman gets 5 years in deadly DUII crash

(Update: Adding that victim was Toews’ boyfriend)

A Bend-area woman who was at the wheel in a March 2018 rollover crash east of Bend that killed her boyfriend was sentenced Monday to five years in prison on charges of criminally negligent homicide, drugged driving and assault.

Samantha Lou Toews, now 27, was sentenced by Deschutes County Circuit Judge Michael Adler. She had pleaded guilty to the charges last month, after a settlement conference. She had been arrested on a second-degree manslaughter charge.

The crash killed Jason House, 36, of Powell Butte, who was the front-seat passenger when Toews’ 2006 Hyundai Tucson failed to make a left-hand curve on the Powell Butte Highway before the intersection with McGrath Road. She crossed and left the road, flipping several times on the evening of March 5, 2018, sheriff’s deputies said. They said House was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the SUV.

Toews, who was wearing her seat belt, also was seriously injured in the crash, while a 9-year-old Powell Butte girl riding in the back seat also was wearing her seat belt and had minor injuries.

Toews, who authorities said was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the crash, will face three years of post-prison supervision upon release from prison, and lost her driver’s license for life. The judge also ordered that she pay a $10,000 compensatory fine to House’s mother, on behalf of his two minor children.

The judge recommended mental health and drug treatment as part of her post-prison supervision.

Toews did not make a statement at the sentencing, but the victim’s mother wrote a letter to the judge.