Suspected DUI crash in east Santa Rosa kills 18-year-old woman

An 18-year-old woman was killed in a car crash late Sunday night, and her 19-year-old friend, the driver who lost control of the vehicle before it slammed into a tree, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Michajla Bailey Kostecka was killed instantly when the two-door Chevrolet Cavalier she was a riding in ran off winding Mountain Hawk Drive into a sycamore tree around 11 p.m. Sunday, officials and witnesses said.

Her friend, driver Rebecca Iris Guillory, 19, of Santa Rosa had minor injuries and was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence, according to Santa Rosa police. Witnesses said they smelled the strong odor of alcohol on Guillory’s breath. Police suspect Guillory was under the influence of both alcohol and drugs when she crashed in the residential Skyhawk neighborhood.

“We found evidence of alcohol near the scene and evidence of marijuana near the scene,” Santa Rosa police traffic Sgt. Summer Black said.

Neighbors described hearing a loud crash and rushing outside to render what assistance they could to the occupants of the crumpled car.

“It was just horrific,” said Sheila Peterson, who was getting ready for bed when she and her boyfriend heard the crash. “We just heard this loud bang and looked at each other and said ‘That is not good.’”

The couple ran outside and joined other neighbors trying to help. They retrieved flashlights, a knife to cut off seat belts and a wrench to break windows, but in the end there was little they could do, she said.

It was obvious that Kostecka was dead, and Guillory was pinned inside the car.

“I was just trying to hold her hand and comfort her,” Peterson said.

Another neighbor, Damion Asker, explained the car appeared to have been traveling south, ran off the right side of the road and struck one tree on the passenger side. The car bounced off the tree, spun around and came to rest with its left side against a second tree, Asker said.

He first went to the crushed passenger’s side but immediately concluded she was dead. He focused on trying to help the driver, but the second impact had pinned the driver’s side door closed, he said. So he and others just tried to keep her awake and her neck stable. Asker said he feared the driver’s neck was broken.

She was conscious but dazed. At one point she reached out for her friend, but Asker told her “you’re friend is no longer with us,” which appeared to upset her.

He said he could clearly smell alcohol similar to schnapps on the driver.

The crash happened just after the two had left a home farther up Mountain Hawk Drive where Guillory apparently had been staying. They were headed down the hill, Black said.

The Cavalier was moving faster than the 25 mph limit, but how fast still needs to be calculated, Black said.

“The speed definitely is going to be a factor.”

Officers didn’t find skid marks, which would have indicated the car was slowing before it left the road just south of Branch Owl Place. The impacts demolished the car, collapsing both sides and the front end and crushing the roof, Black said.

Santa Rosa firefighters arrived, peeled back the roof and cut the driver free. She was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and treated for minor injuries. Officers arrested her and booked her into the Sonoma County Jail.

Her bail was set at $100,000.

Monday afternoon, bouquets of colorful mums and pink roses, and a handwritten note, marked a small memorial for Kostecka at the crash scene.

Asker said he came out Monday morning and saw a man leaving flowers and hugging the tree where the first impact happened. The man said he was the father of the decreased girl, and they hugged.

“It was pretty surreal,” Asker said.

Family members have opened GoFundMe account to help with funeral costs, posting that Michajla died late on New Year’s Day in a car accident.

“…We gained an angel,” wrote Yvonne Falk, listed as the organizer of the account.

“She was so bold and loud. Michajla definitely lived her life to the fullest. She went to parties, had adventures, was always doing something new. She was a wild child. It was never boring with her. We’ll miss you Michajla. We all love you.”

The two girls had been house-sitting up the hill, Falk said in an interview.

“She was a sweetheart,” said Falk, who is engaged to Michajla’s older brother Austen Bailey.

The couple now live in Idaho. Austen Bailey, 23, said he was awakened Monday morning by two police officers at his home who break the news of his sister’s death to him because his mother, Wanda Bailey of Santa Rosa, hadn’t been able to reach him.

Austen Bailey said he and his sister both went to Elise Allen High School, but they also spent time homeschooled by their mother. He said he believed his sister was attending the school part-time.

He said he and his sister were close until he left for Idaho at age 18, and they saw less of each other. He didn’t know her current friends, including the driver of car, he said. His move left his little sister feeling abandoned, and she began making poor decisions, he said.

These included drinking and drug use, which he acknowledged she glorified on her Facebook page. But he said it was “a phase” she was going through, and he didn’t want those actions to define her.

“She had a big heart and a big smile,” he said. “She might have done some stupid things, but that’s not who she was.”

The crash and the hours leading to it remain under investigation, and Sgt. Black asked anyone who may have information to contact Officer Joshua Kertianis at 707-543-3636.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.