Boise father faces his sentence after 16-year-old son died at Lucky Peak Lake
A Boise father whose son drowned at Lucky Peak Lake was placed on probation after he pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child for driving a jet ski while he was drunk.
Fourth District Judge Samuel A. Hoagland sentenced 38-year-old Vyla Sichulailuck to six years of felony probation following recommendations made by both the prosecution and defense. Hoagland said he rarely sentences someone on a felony without requiring some jail time but that he didn’t think additional time behind bars would serve any purpose.
“You already have, basically, a lifetime sentence of blaming yourself for the death of a son that I know that you loved, and I know that he loved you,” Hoagland said. He added that he received letters of support from almost every one of Sichulailuck’s family members sitting in the courtroom.
In July 2022, Sichulailuck and his 16-year-old son, Bobby, were riding a jet ski at Lucky Peak Lake when they hit a wave from a nearby boat and Bobby fell off, the Idaho Statesman previously reported. Sichulailuck jumped into the water to try and save Bobby, but Bobby drowned, Hoagland said in court. Neither of them were wearing life jackets.
Authorities determined through a blood test that Sichulailuck’s blood alcohol content was 0.135, Patrick Orr, the spokesperson for the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, previously told the Statesman. Hoagland said in court that Sichulailuck’s blood was tested a couple of hours after the incident, which meant Sichulailuck’s blood alcohol content was roughly twice the legal limit of 0.08 while he was operating the jet ski.
Hoagland granted Sichulailuck a withheld judgment, which means he won’t order a judgment of conviction. So long as Sichulailuck complies with the terms of his probation, he can petition the court to dismiss the felony charge in six years.
“A withheld judgment is a two-edged sword,” Hoagland said. “It’s very favorable if you comply and the charges can get dismissed at the end of the probation period, and you can legally say you were never convicted of a felony. But ... I have the whole sentence in my back pocket that I could impose if you violate probation.”
Sichulailuck could have faced up to 10 years in prison under Idaho law. As part of his probation, Hoagland required that Sichulailuck attend an outpatient treatment center for alcohol abuse and that he comply with weekly random drug and alcohol testing during the first year of his probation. He’ll also be required to pay a $1,000 fine along with court costs.
Sichulailuck’s attorney, John Sutton, said he’s been “nothing but remorseful” and that based on the court-ordered evaluations, Sichulailuck is at a low risk to re-offend. He added that Sichulailuck has gone to counseling and plans to complete his mandated alcohol education and group therapy for both alcohol and grief counseling.
“It’s speculation whether he would have been able to save (Bobby) if he’d been sober,” Sutton said. “But it’s clear that he would have been in a much better capacity to be able to do that had he not been impaired.”
