Alleged drunken driver pleads not guilty

2016 crash near Camptonville killed Tahoe City passenger

A Smartsville man accused of driving drunk and killing his passenger in 2016 pleaded not guilty Monday.

Patrick D. Elliott, 31, was charged with felony gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence and causing injury, and driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content greater than .08 causing injury.

The case against him was filed and an arrest warrant issued in April 2017; he turned himself in to the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office last month.

On Feb. 13, 2016, Elliott, who was driving on a suspended license, crashed on Highway 49 just north of Moonshine Road near Camptonville after his vehicle went off a cliff, according to Appealdemocrat archives. His passenger, Nathan Boyd, 31, of Tahoe City, was killed; Elliott was injured.

Though Elliott had a Smartsville address listed, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said Elliott had been hiding out in Massachusetts with his sister.

In early September, when a storm hit the city of Orleans, power utility workers were checking on customers and peeked into the window where Elliott and his sister were living, Officer Mike Steele said in an interview last month. The sister was not happy to see Patrick D. Elliott someone looking through her window and Elliott went to the local police department to complain. He left before filing a report and when officers looked up his name, they discovered he had an arrest warrant out of Yuba County.

Officers searched for Elliott and could not locate him, but called and informed him they knew he had a warrant, Steele said. Elliott told officers he knew, then traveled to California to turn himself in. He posted bail shortly after his Sept. 24 arrest.

Elliott is scheduled to next appear in Yuba County Superior Court for a pre-hearing conference Dec. 12.

In the story, “A new Gold Rush in Chinatown,” published in the Oct. 26 Appeal-democrat, the correct name of one of the businesses should have been reported as Bridge Coffee Co.

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