A woman who lived in Federal Way at the time of the crime has been sentenced to 89 months in prison for vehicular homicide.

On March 14, Wendy Cisneros, 23, was sentenced to serve 89 months in the Washington State Department of Corrections for vehicular homicide to run concurrently — at the same time — as another sentence of 57 months for vehicular assault and two other 43-month sentences for vehicular assault. Cisneros also pleaded guilty to a driving under the influence charge, for which she received 364 days in King County Jail, but it is suspended for 60 months as long as she does not violate probation.

According to documents, the length of her vehicular homicide sentence was determined by her offender score. The vehicular assault charges and the DUI charge were considered in her offender score, giving her an offender score of seven. An offender score of seven put her sentence range between 67 months to 89 months.

Cisneros also had a DUI charge from an incident in Auburn in October 2023, where she had a blood alcohol content of 0.16, but Auburn dismissed that charge because she had pleaded guilty to the DUI charge in this case. Cisneros was a resident of Federal Way at the time of the crime, but court documents state that she now resides in Maple Valley.

Details of the incident

According to court documents, at about 4 p.m. June 21, 2023, Cisneros was under the influence of marijuana while driving a 2021 Honda Civic in SeaTac with her cousin as a passenger.

Witnesses and evidence suggest that Cisneros was speeding on a road that had a speed limit of 25 mph, failed to stop at a red light, and collided with a 2003 Chevrolet Malibu driven by Jonathan Kronsburg, 19. The Malibu rolled over and came to rest on its roof. According to charging documents, Cisneros said she was running late to work and thought the road she was on was a 35 mph zone. A responding officer said he heard Cisneros say, “It’s all my fault. I caused this. This is my fault.”

Kronsburg suffered critical injuries and was declared legally dead on June 23, 2023. His sister, age 16, was in the backseat and suffered severe facial lacerations and other injuries. At the time charges were filed, Kronsburg’s fiancee, 26, seated in the front passenger seat, remained in the hospital with multiple internal injuries and fractures. On June 26, when the charging documents were filed, documents said that Kronsburg’s fiancee was intubated and nonresponsive. Cisneros’ cousin also suffered a serious internal bowel injury, according to documents.

Police officers and firefighters responded to the scene shortly after the crash. According to documents, Cisneros was untruthful about her marijuana usage, but then admitted to causing the accident and later confessed to having smoked marijuana earlier that day. The documents said officers found commercial packaging containers for marijuana and a lighter on the vehicle’s floorboard. Additionally, in the driver’s door pocket was a bag of Doritos and what appeared to be more marijuana packaging, according to documents.

According to documents, Cisneros said that she had smoked at 12:30 p.m., but she was a heavy smoker and could “Hang, you know?” A responding officer said that Cisneros’ eyes were glazed and bloodshot, and she had droopy eyelids.

In support of Cisneros, various family and friends wrote letters to the judge testifying to her character, saying it doesn’t discount what she did, but asked the judge to consider it when sentencing her.

“I hope you can find compassion for Wendy who made a tragic mistake. She is a kind, smart and a hard working individual,” Cisnero’s cousin who was also hurt in the crash wrote. “This does not define the person that she is so please let that be a factor in your decision.”