‘I thought police couldn’t chase me’: Woman with 47 arrests gets 23 years for murder in Thurston County crash
May 1, 2026, 7:06 AM | Updated: 3:02 pm
“I thought police couldn’t chase me if I drove recklessly.”
That’s what Nicole Romanoff believed when she got behind the wheel of a stolen truck in Thurston County on September 7, 2024. It’s what Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders said she effectively told deputies after they caught her down the road from the wreck.
For most of the three years before that crash, she was right.
Gina Munna was a passenger in the car Romanoff hit head-on. She didn’t steal anything. She wasn’t running from anyone. She was riding in a car on a Thurston County road when Nicole Romanoff’s learned confidence in Washington’s no-pursuit culture killed her.
This week, Romanoff pleaded guilty to murder. At sentencing, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Christine Schaller rejected the prosecution’s recommended range of 16 to 20 years and handed down approximately 23 years in prison. It was the right call. And it’s worth understanding exactly what Judge Schaller was sentencing, because the story doesn’t start with the crash.
What Nicole Romanoff did that day
Romanoff spent that day driving a stolen truck through a Lacey neighborhood, asking homeowners for fentanyl. When one of them refused, she tried to run him over. He retreated behind a tree to survive.
Deputies located Romanoff on SR 510, passing cars in a no-pass zone at excessive speeds and nearly causing multiple head-on collisions. When they tried to stop her, she blew through red lights. They couldn’t keep up.
She then drove head-on into the vehicle Munna was riding in.
After deputies caught her down the road, she showed no remorse. She told them she believed that if she drove recklessly enough, law enforcement was required to break off the chase and let her go.
She’d been paying attention.
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WA’s pursuit law gave criminals exactly this belief
In 2021, the legislature passed HB 1054, which gutted the state’s police vehicle pursuit authority. Before that law, officers needed only reasonable suspicion to initiate a chase. HB 1054 raised the bar to probable cause for most offenses, effectively ending pursuits for the vast majority of crimes. Governor Jay Inslee signed it.
The results were immediate and measurable. The Washington State Patrol (WSP) logged nearly 8,000 incidents of drivers refusing to stop for troopers in the years that followed. Car theft records shattered. Law enforcement watched suspects simply drive away.
The legislature made a partial fix in 2023 with Senate Bill 5352, restoring reasonable suspicion for a narrow list of offenses. For most crimes, the hands-off policy stayed in place.
It took a voter-driven initiative to finish the job. Initiative 2113 passed the Legislature 36-13 in the Senate and 77-20 in the House, restoring reasonable suspicion as the standard for any crime. It took effect June 6, 2024.
Ninety-three days before Nicole Romanoff killed Gina Munna.
Three years of street knowledge doesn’t reset on a date
Romanoff’s belief that reckless driving was a get-out-of-jail card wasn’t paranoia. It was learned. Washington’s Democratic majority spent three years building that lesson into the culture, then passed a voter initiative and called it corrected.
The gap between the law changing and the culture catching up cost Munna her life.
47 arrests, and the system kept letting her go
At the time of the crash, Romanoff had 47 prior arrests. Four felony convictions. Twenty-five misdemeanor convictions. Three active warrants outstanding. A suspended driver’s license. And a serious drug problem that, as Sanders noted, was likely the driving force behind all of it.
Sanders didn’t mince words after sentencing.
“Nicole would not be facing a 23-year murder sentence, and Gina would still be alive, if Nicole’s underlying problems were resolved in a secure facility sometime during her first 47 arrests,” Sanders wrote on Facebook. “Continuously releasing Nicole back into society set no one up for success: not her, not her victims, and not the law enforcement officers tasked with mitigating her destructive behavior.”
Sanders also asked the question the system has been ducking for years: “At what point are we going to acknowledge that the safest place for the 1% of individuals who cannot function in society without hurting others is within a secure detention facility where treatment is ready and waiting for them?”
Forty-seven chances. Nobody answered that question in time for Munna.
Judge Christine Schaller went above the guidelines. Here’s why that matters
Prosecutors recommended 16 to 20 years. Judge Schaller looked at this record, looked at what happened to Munna, and decided the guidelines didn’t cover it. She sentenced Romanoff to approximately 23 years.
I’ve spent time on this program calling out judges who treat serious crimes like scheduling inconveniences. Today is different. Judge Schaller understood that some cases exceed the formula.
Munna deserved a system that stopped Nicole Romanoff long before September 7, 2024. She deserved lawmakers who understood that no-pursuit policies have consequences. She deserved a revolving door that someone had the sense to close.
She got a judge who finally did.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
