LYNNWOOD—Robert Craig Rowland, a 39-year-old man with a lengthy criminal record, was sentenced to 27 years in prison on Tuesday, December 2, for the second-degree murder of 83-year-old Trudy Slanger in a fatal wrong-way collision on 525 near Highway 99. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Appel facilitated the sentence hearing.

The tragedy unfolded on April 11, 2024, when Rowland, fleeing from law enforcement in a stolen GMC Sierra pickup, deliberately drove southbound in the northbound lanes of SR 525 near North Lynnwood. According to court records obtained by the Lynnwood Times, he collided head-on with Slanger’s vehicle, killing her instantly. Rowland’s passenger, his girlfriend Kelsey Martin, suffered a broken ankle in the crash.

Rowland pleaded guilty on November 20, 2025,

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