A 36-year-old man will serve a decade in prison after he hit a couple crossing a Pasco street and drove away, leaving the 73-year-old woman to die.

Maria Larios Torres was rushed to a hospital but didn’t survive. Her husband, Jesus Vargas-Orozco, 67, was seriously hurt.

A GoFundMe had been organized to help the family of Maria Larios Torres killed while crossing the street.

Julius E. D. Pulliam was sentenced in Franklin County Superior Court after previously pleading guilty Aug. 1 to vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, fatal hit-and-run, possession of a stolen vehicle and witness tampering.

Police tracked him down by using security camera footage and data from a GPS ankle monitor he was already wearing because of another crime at time of the crash.

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He previously had been convicted of fleeing the scene of an injury collision in Oklahoma in 2019, according to court records.

He’d only recently moved to Washington state after meeting his future wife online and marrying her in 2022.

While defendants usually face a sentencing range, Pulliam could be sentenced only to 10 years under state law.

At the Aug. 17 sentencing hearing, the victims’ family and the prosecutor’s office thanked Pasco police for their investigation that led to capturing Pulliam, Prosecutor Shawn Sant said in a news release.

Pulliam also was sentenced Thursday for trying to elude police and illegally have a gun in connection with a June 2022 incident. That term will be served at the same time and won’t change the length of his prison term.

Julius Pulliam made an initial appearance via video link in Franklin County Superior Court after the Nov. 2022 crash.

Deadly Pasco crash

Larios Torres and Vargas-Orozco were hit by a stolen car while crossing 20th Avenue on their way home from buying groceries at the SuperMex El Pueblo Market about 7 p.m. on Nov. 22.

Security video showed the maroon two-door Honda crash into them and speed away.

A 36-year-old man previously pleaded guilty a hit and run that killed a 73-year-old woman and injured her husband in Pasco last fall.

The two had lived in Pasco all their entire lives and were field workers, according to a GoFundMe campaign that was organized to help with funeral expenses.

Police found the empty sedan the next day parked in the backyard of a vacant home on the 400 block of 22nd Avenue. The car had been reported stolen the day before the crash.

A tip identified the driver as “Awax,” which is Pulliam’s street name, according to court documents.

The tipster told police that Pulliam admitted to hitting the couple. The witness claimed Pulliam was the only person in the car.

Security camera footage from a grocery store in the hours before the crash showed Pulliam arriving in the Honda.