An Everett man has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide and related charges in connection with a July 4th hit-and-run crash in Sedro-Woolley that killed a 19-year-old Bellingham woman. Kirk Brenon, 58, was arraigned in Skagit County Superior Court on Thursday, July 16, court documents confirm.
Brenon is accused of striking Anahi Mendoza while she was selling fireworks on a sidewalk in Sedro-Woolley on the Fourth of July. According to police, Brenon was driving at excessive speed and under the influence of marijuana when his vehicle left the roadway, struck Mendoza and a crosswalk signal on the sidewalk, and then drove away from the scene. He later told police he had smoked marijuana earlier that day and believed at the time that he had hit a pole.
A Victim With Deep Bellingham Roots
Anahi Mendoza had just graduated from Squalicum High School in Bellingham in 2025. She was working at the fireworks stand on July 4 to save money for a trip to Florida with her boyfriend, according to a GoFundMe page her family created in the aftermath of her death. That page quickly drew attention from the community as people across Whatcom County responded to news of the crash and sought a way to express support for a family that had lost their daughter to a senseless and entirely preventable act of violence on a holiday evening.
Mendoza's death struck a painful chord in Bellingham, where she had spent her high school years and had a network of family, friends, and classmates. Squalicum High School is one of Bellingham's three comprehensive public high schools, located in the Birchwood neighborhood on the north side of the city. For her classmates and teachers, news of her death carried the particular weight that comes when someone dies not long after a life milestone, in this case a graduation that should have been the beginning of a new chapter rather than one of the final events of her life.
The crash occurred while Mendoza was at a legal fireworks sales location. Roadside fireworks stands are a common and permitted commercial activity in unincorporated Skagit County on and around the Fourth of July. The location where she was working was a public-facing, pedestrian-accessible sidewalk area, the kind of spot where people selling fireworks stand and interact with customers for hours at a time, relying on the basic expectation that vehicles will stay on the road.
Brenon's Criminal History and the Charges He Faces
Kirk Brenon has an extensive criminal history in Washington State. Court records indicate he has 17 prior felony convictions in Washington, a factor that is likely to be considered by prosecutors in their approach to the case and by the court at any eventual sentencing hearing if Brenon is convicted.
The charges Brenon faces include vehicular homicide, which under Washington law can be charged when a driver causes a death while operating a vehicle recklessly or while impaired by drugs or alcohol. Vehicular homicide is a Class A felony in Washington, the most serious felony classification, carrying a standard sentencing range that can exceed ten years in prison depending on the defendant's criminal history score. Class A felonies in Washington are in the same category as crimes like assault in the first degree and robbery in the first degree, reflecting the legislature's judgment that causing a death through impaired or reckless driving is among the most serious harms one person can inflict on another.
Under Washington's Sentencing Reform Act, prior felony convictions directly increase the standard sentencing range for new convictions through a point-based offender score system. Each prior felony conviction adds points to the score, and a higher score produces a higher sentencing range from the standard grid. With 17 prior felonies, Brenon's offender score would place him at or near the maximum end of the vehicular homicide sentencing range if convicted at trial, meaning a judge would be working with a standard range that reflects the full weight of his prior record alongside the current offense.
Additional charges beyond vehicular homicide were also filed in connection with the incident, though the full charge list was not detailed in initial public reports. Hit-and-run involving injury or death is a separate criminal offense in Washington and would typically accompany a vehicular homicide charge in a case like this. Under state law, a driver involved in a collision resulting in injury or death is legally required to stop, provide identification, and render reasonable assistance. Driving away, as Brenon is accused of doing, constitutes a separate felony independent of whatever caused the crash in the first place.
What Comes Next in the Case
Brenon's trial is tentatively scheduled to begin on October 26, 2026, in Skagit County Superior Court. Between now and trial, the case will move through standard pretrial proceedings, including discovery, possible pretrial motions to suppress evidence or challenge the admissibility of statements Brenon made to police, and any plea negotiations between his defense attorney and the Skagit County Prosecutor's Office.
Vehicular homicide cases that go to trial in Washington typically involve testimony about blood or urine toxicology results, accident reconstruction analysis, and eyewitness accounts of the driving behavior before and at the moment of impact. Toxicology evidence will be central in this case given that Brenon acknowledged smoking marijuana earlier on July 4. Washington law does not use a per se THC limit for vehicular homicide the way it does for alcohol, so prosecutors would need to establish through expert testimony and other evidence that Brenon's marijuana use actually impaired his ability to drive safely at the time of the crash.
The social media video evidence in this case, if authenticated, could also be significant for establishing Brenon's speed and trajectory in the moments before the crash. Accident reconstruction experts can use video footage to calculate approximate vehicle speed and path, which would corroborate or supplement the physical evidence from the scene. Brenon's own statement to police, in which he claimed to believe he had hit a pole rather than a person, may also be scrutinized at trial for what it reveals about his awareness and state of mind at the moment of impact and in the minutes that followed.
The Skagit County Superior Court handles felony cases for Skagit County. Bellingham residents with questions about the case can follow proceedings through the Skagit County court system's public case information. The Washington State Courts website also provides public access to case dockets. For background on prior coverage of the original crash and how Whatcom County officials responded, see this earlier report on public safety and justice system developments in the county.
