Inset, left to right: Gina Munna (GoFundMe) and Nicole Romanoff (KOMO). Background: The area in Washington state where Romanoff struck and killed Munna in September 2024 (Google Maps).
A 35-year-old woman in Washington state will spend more than two decades behind bars for causing a deadly high-speed crash while fleeing police, showing “absolutely no remorse” after barreling into another vehicle and killing a 70-year-old grandmother.
Nicole Romanoff on Monday pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and vehicular assault in connection with the September 2024 pursuit that killed Gina Munna, court records show. Following her plea, Thurston County Superior Judge Christine Schaller immediately ordered Romanoff to serve 275 months — just under 23 years — in a state correctional facility, followed by three years of community custody.
Several of Munna”s friends and family members urged the court to impose the harshest penalty possible during the hearing, describing the devastating impact of her sudden death.
“Please deliver accountability today,” Munna’s niece said, adding that the family has struggled not with “what if she had stopped for police,” but whether she would ever be held responsible, according to a report from Seattle-based ABC affiliate KOMO.
Prosecutors similarly argued for a lengthy sentence, pointing to Romanoff’s extensive criminal history — including dozens of prior arrests — and the extreme danger posed by the pursuit.
A Washington State Patrol trooper wrote in the arrest report that Romanoff “showed absolutely no remorse for her actions” and “never asked how the injured victims were doing,” the station reported.
The judge ultimately went with a sentence that exceeded the recommendation from prosecutors, explaining that Romanoff’s actions showed a clear disregard for human life and her decisions led directly to Munna’s death.
“The court finds it difficult to believe that your thought process was, ‘Police can’t pursue vehicles that flee, so I’m going to flee,'” the judge said. “You were already speeding when law enforcement saw you. If you thought they would stop following you, you quickly learned that was not the case because they continued to pursue you.”
In additional remarks from the bench, Schaller emphasized that Romanoff’s actions only ended because of the crash itself.
“Those were the choices that you made and that you continued to make, and the only reason you stopped is because you crashed into this car,” the judge said, according to a report from Seattle ABC affiliate KIRO.
The case stems from events that took place on Sept. 7, 2024, when Romanoff was reportedly walking through a Lacey neighborhood asking strangers where she could purchase fentanyl. She was later seen getting into a stolen pickup truck and driving away.
Roughly 40 minutes later, a Thurston County sheriff’s deputy spotted the vehicle and attempted a traffic stop. Instead, Romanoff accelerated, reaching speeds of up to 90 mph in a 35 to 40 mph zone, weaving through traffic, and driving erratically, investigators said.
Romanoff reportedly believed that if she drove recklessly enough and that following her presented a danger to the community, police would be forced to abandon the pursuit — a claim she later repeated to law enforcement.
Additional details shared by Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders indicated Romanoff had already endangered others before the pursuit escalated. In a social media post, Sanders said Romanoff attempted to run over a homeowner who refused to help her obtain drugs, forcing the person to dive behind a tree for safety. Deputies later observed her passing vehicles in a no-passing zone and “nearly causing multiple head-on crashes” as she sped through traffic and blew through red lights.
Deputies deployed spike strips, but Romanoff drove through them and continued driving, slamming head-on into another vehicle at a major intersection in Olympia.
Munna was killed in the crash, while her sister and brother-in-law reportedly suffered serious injuries, including broken vertebrae and ribs, Seattle NBC affiliate KING reported.
Investigators later determined Romanoff had fentanyl, methadone, and methamphetamine in her system at the time of the crash.
Following her arrest, she allegedly insisted to officers, “I didn’t kill anybody. Nobody died,” even as first responders worked at the scene.
Given the chance to speak during Monday’s hearing, Romanoff read a brief apology. Her attorney sought a lesser sentence, reportedly asserting that his client had been “lost, high, and confused” during the incident and was currently seeking treatment for addiction.
“When she realized law enforcement was attempting to stop her and the vehicle she was in, she panicked,” the defense attorney reportedly wrote in a sentencing memo. “She knew of law enforcement’s stated policy not to engage in vehicle pursuits if driving was dangerous to the public. She believed that if she drove recklessly, police would terminate the pursuit, and she could go home and get everything under control.”
