Boat driver sentenced to 6 years for three deaths

By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian • Published January 08, 2009

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OLYMPIA - A Thurston County judge sentenced Vincent Farler to six years and three months in prison Thursday for operating a boat while under the influence of alcohol June 12, causing the deaths of three people - including two children - when it capsized on the Nisqually River.

Farler, 43, had earlier pleaded guilty under an Alford plea to three counts of homicide by watercraft.

Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges there is enough evidence to win a conviction at trial. An Alford plea is tantamount to a guilty plea.

Cameron McCartney, 9; his younger brother Sean McCartney, 5; and Bryan L. Pierce, 32, all drowned after Farler’s boat capsized after running into a logjam. Farler and the McCartney boys’ mother, Erin McCartney, were able to make it safely to shore.

None of the five people aboard the boat were wearing a life jacket.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Skinder has said that after the boat capsized, Farler’s blood-alcohol content was found to be 0.19, more than twice the legal limit.

Eyewitness Matt Anderson, who was sitting with a friend by a campfire on the Nisqually River when the accident occurred, has said that the boat capsized when Farler tried to make a U-turn against the current to avoid a logjam. But the boat lost control against the current and struck the logjam with force, Anderson has said.

According to court papers, Erin McCartney brought a bottle of brandy when she, Pierce, and her two sons got on Farler’s boat. Farler admitted he had been drinking at the Cedar Inn Tavern with his father before the boating accident, court papers state.

In June, a Fort Lewis spokeswoman said Erin McCartney’s husband is a Fort Lewis soldier, and was headed back to Washington from Iraq on emergency leave after his two children died.

Jeremy Pawloski covers public safety for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5465 or jpawloski@theolympian.com.