PORT ORCHARD — Instead of spending time in prison, convicted hit-and-run driver Dominic L. Dixon will pay the family of Katherine Phillips $250,000 as restitution for striking and killing her — then fleeing the scene — as the Washington State Ferries employee was assisting a stranded driver on Sedgwick Road last year.

The agreement was filed late last month in Kitsap County Superior Court by Kitsap County prosecutors and Phillips’ family, and was agreed to by Dixon. Terms of the agreement would keep the Kent man out of prison after being charged with felony hit and run after he struck the 34-year-old Phillips.

After getting off her shift at the Southworth ferry terminal, the good Samaritan had stopped to help a motorist, whose car had run out of gas in the early morning hours of March 22, 2018. Phillips, a Belfair resident, had just returned from a nearby gas station with a gasoline container and was filling the motorist’s fuel tank when Dixon’s vehicle, a 2002 Chevrolet Impala, struck and killed her.

Dixon fled the scene and wasn’t located by law enforcement until April 2, 2018, when he was arrested in Pierce County.

As part of an unusual wrongful-death lawsuit agreement, Dixon, a Puget Sound Naval Shipyard employee, is to pay Phillips’ family $250,000 over five years, or $500 a month. According to court records, if he fully pays according to the terms of the agreement and hasn’t violated ancillary provisions, Dixon will face a less severe charge of hit and run attended, which is a gross misdemeanor instead of a felony.

The agreement stipulates payment to Phillips’ spouse, Michael, and their two children, ages 15 and 6.