News - Local News

POSTED: Wednesday, Jul. 08, 2009

Jury blames many in Bellingham teen's 2006 death

Mother won't collect all damages, but plans to donate them to charity

A Whatcom County Superior Court jury has awarded more than $250,000 to a Bellingham mother whose teenage son died in a car crash in 2006, but she'll receive less than half of that.

George Tsimouris, then 14, was a passenger in the back seat of a Volkswagen Golf while joyriding with five other teenagers on a narrow, hilly stretch of 30th Street south of Old Fairhaven Parkway on Feb. 22, 2006.

The driver, Kevin Arndt, then 16, was driving faster than 80 mph when he lost control of the vehicle and crashed, killing Tsimouris and seriously injuring three passengers.

Tsimouris' mother, Vicki Kapellakis, sued the owners of the car, Steven and Simone Hathaway, and Arndt in September 2006.

After a 10-day trial, the jury spent two days deliberating before finding Tuesday, July 7, that all six teenagers in the car were negligent, as were the Hathaways.

The eight-woman, four-man jury found that Arndt's negligence was most responsible for the crash, while Steven and Simone Hathaway's respective negligence was least responsible.

The jury assigned a percentage of the total damages amount to each person involved, but only the Hathaways and Arndt will have to pay because they were the ones named as defendants in the lawsuit, said Erica Krikorian, an attorney for Kapellakis.

The jury awarded $266,667 total; the Hathaways must pay $26,667, while Arndt must pay $98,667.

Kapellakis said she plans to donate that money to charities that support activities her son participated in, such as the Boys & Girls Club.

"I want to help other children," Kapellakis said. "There are activities that he would do that other children can't afford."

Kapellakis said she was grateful for the trial's end.

"It's just a matter of having closure," Kapellakis said. "Now I feel like I can start over and start living again."

Arndt's attorney, David Hennings, said he supported the jury's verdict.

"This was a tragic case," Hennings said. "Kevin has been an upstanding young man. I'm very pleased that the jury was able to see that every kid in the car played a role in the accident."

On Feb. 22, 2006, Garrett Hathaway was at his house with Tsimouris and friends Louis Burrell III and Cody Jacobson when he asked his mother to drive him to throw toilet paper over a house.

Simone Hathaway refused, Garrett testified, but told him to talk to his sister, Kelsey, for a ride. Simone gave them $20 for the toilet paper and told them to return immediately afterward.

Kelsey, who was dating Arndt at the time, was in the passenger seat while the four boys sat in the back seat.

Before returning to the Hathaway house they drove to 30th Street to joyride, and took two trips up and down that stretch of road. After the first trip, the boys in the back seat encouraged Arndt to drive faster. He crashed the car before the end of the second trip.

The jury found the following people negligent and assigned them a percentage of responsibility for the crash. The Bellingham Herald is naming all of the people the jury found responsible:

• Kevin Arndt, 37 percent.

• Kelsey Hathaway, 16 percent.

• Garrett Hathaway, 10 percent.

• Cody Jacobson, 9 percent.

• George Tsimouris, 9 percent.

• Louis Burrell III, 9 percent.

• Simone Hathaway, 6 percent.

• Steve Hathaway, 4 percent.