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Rafael Espinoza Moreno, 27, was sentenced to 19 years and 8 months after pleading no contest to charges stemming from the Aug. 14 crash that killed Esmeralda Ramirez of Baldwin Park, prosecutors said.
Ramirez was walking to church with her boyfriend at about 2:30 p.m. when Moreno, who was later found to have a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit, lost control of the 2005 Jeep Laredo he was driving, travelling onto the sidewalk along Baldwin Park Boulevard near Stewart Street and fatally striking Ramirez, Baldwin Park police Lt. David Reynoso said.
Ramirez was pronounced dead at the scene.
"Alcohol and excessive speed were factors in this collision," Reynoso said. "Moreno had never been issued a California driver’s license but had previously received a citation for driving with no license and speeding. Moreno had also been previously deported and was in the country illegally at the time of the crime."
Moreno fled the crash scene and was found hiding about two blocks away, police said.
"It appears Moreno was in the process of telephoning his family members to pick him up so he can elude arrest," Reynoso said.
The crash occurred on Moreno’s birthday.
Anthony Brian Tecca appeared before Judge Russell Fagg and pleaded not guilty to felony charges of DUI and four counts of criminal endangerment.
The judge allowed Tecca to remain free pending trial on a posted $10,000 bond. He also ordered Tecca to submit to electronic alcohol monitoring.
Tecca was arrested Jan. 7 shortly after 10 p.m. by officers checking on a report of a reckless driver in the area of Belvedere Drive. A motorist called police to report that the driver of a minivan had nearly struck parked cars and almost hit his vehicle head-on.
Officers found the minivan parked on Montclair Drive. Three children, ages 10, 9 and 7, were in the minivan.
Officers said Tecca showed signs of intoxication, performed poorly on a sobriety test and refused to provide a breath sample. A blood sample was taken after a judge issued a search warrant.
DUI ARRESTS
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
The following motorists were charged Monday with driving under the influence. Names, ages and addresses were provided by the individuals.
Michael Scott Curtis, 29, 700 block of Marlinspike Drive.
Oliver Dewitt Reeve, 66, address unavailable.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
The following motorists were charged Friday through Monday with driving under the influence. Names, ages and addresses were provided by the individuals.
Linda Bridges Collins, 56, 4500 block of Voyager Drive, Pensacola.
Eugene Carl Focarelli, 28, 2700 block of Eureka Lane, Pensacola.
Sean Michael Allen, 39, 2700 block of Riverside Landing, Navarre.
Joseph Michael Moghadam, 49, 4400 block of Chantilly Way, Milton.
That means if he’s convicted, Michael Hughes, 43, of the 2000 block of South Philo Road, faces a mandatory prison term of four to 15 years and it could be even longer because of his record.
Assistant State’s Attorney Chris Kanis said that about 3 a.m. Monday, Hughes went in the Circle K, 1809 N. Cunningham Ave., and asked the clerk to open the beer cooler. The clerk said he appeared intoxicated. When she declined to open the cooler, Hughes allegedly took a bottle of vodka, put it in his pants and left.
The clerk followed him out and made contact with a state trooper who was nearby. Hughes, who was in the driver’s seat of a car, admitted to the trooper he had driven to the store from his daughter’s house in Champaign.
Kanis said the trooper’s report said the trooper found the vodka under the seat. Hughes failed field sobriety tests and on a portable breath test, registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.25 percent, more than three times the limit for a motorist to be presumed intoxicated.
Kanis said even though Hughes is charged with a Class 1 felony DUI, he’s eligible for Class X sentencing of six to 30 years if convicted because of prior convictions. He was also charged with driving under revocation and retail theft.
Hughes also has pending in Champaign County charges of driving under the revocation and theft, which were lodged against him in 2011.
Court records show Hughes had DUI convictions in 1996, 2001, 2003 and 2006, Kanis said. He went to prison for the last three DUI convictions.
Over the past several years, law enforcement agencies across Santa Barbara County and California have intensified their efforts to stop impaired driving and the fatalities that sometimes result.
The effort has proved dizzyingly effective, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently announcing that DUI deaths in the state reached their lowest level ever in 2010. Statewide statistics are not yet available for 2011.
The state’s Office of Traffic Safety credited a record number of DUI checkpoints with helping the decline.
Peace officers in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties said they are successfully cracking down on impaired driving with a combination of education, enforcement and high visibility.
Checkpoints are a key part of that, they say, as are county-wide holiday crackdown operations throughout the year.
Statistics provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicate Santa Barbara County had eight DUI-related traffic fatalities in 2010, down from 14 in 2009, 19 in 2008, 22 in 2007 and 11 in 2006. Those include only crashes that involved a driver with a blood alcohol level greater than .08, the legal limit for adults 21 and over in California.
San Luis Obispo County had five DUI traffic fatalities in 2010, compared to 15 in 2009, 10 in 2008, 13 in 2007 and 16 in 2006.
“I think some of the education is sinking in to some of the population,” said Sgt. John Ploetz of the California Highway Patrol.
He said he believes saturation patrols, where officers look specifically for drivers under the influence, are most effective.
“You don’t know where an officer is. They’re out actively looking for the impaired driver,” Ploetz added.
According to the Office of Traffic Safety, 2010 marked the largest single yearly drop of DUI deaths in the past 14 years for California. In that year, 791 people were killed in DUI crashes on state roadways, compared to 950 in 2009.
Office of Traffic Safety Director Christopher J. Murphy said in a press release that a major milestone had been reached in the fight against drinking and driving.
“While we are elated by these figures, there were still 791 lives, futures and dreams that will never be fully realized. We cannot back off from our ultimate goal — toward zero deaths,” he said.
Local law enforcement officers weighed in on the way they believed their agencies and enforcement programs were affecting the statistics.
Finance director Douglas E. Life, 54, 2315 Belmont Road, Parkersburg, was charged with aggravated DUI following a single-vehicle accident about 5:42 p.m. Sunday near West Virginia 95 and Interstate 77, said Sgt. Greg Collins with the Parkersburg Police Department.
An accident investigation determined that Life was driving east on W.Va. 95 when he lost control of his 2006 Chevy truck, ran off the roadway and struck multiple street signs and a concrete structure which supports I-77. The truck sustained considerable damage in the accident, Collins said.
Life was given three field sobriety tests at the scene, allegedly failing all of them, Collins said. He was taken into custody and transported to the Wood County Holding Center where he allegedly tested 0.165 on the Intoximeter, more than twice the legal limit.
Life was transported by an officer to Camden Clark Medical Center for precautionary medical evaluation, which is often required following traffic accidents, prior to incarceration, Collins said.
The West Virginia Department of Highways inspected the concrete structure and advised there was no damage.
When contacted Sunday evening, Parkersburg Mayor Bob Newell said he will be making a decision in the next couple of days regarding Life’s status as finance director.
Matthew Parker, 25, is accused of drunk driving, speeding, running a red light in Whittier and broadsiding another vehicle on Friday afternoon, reports City News Service. Parker was traveling westbound on Mulberry Drive at Laurel Avenue in his 2004 Toyota Highlander when the crash occurred around 1:10pm. The victim’s car is described as a 2005 Toyota Corolla, which was making a left turn from southbound Laurel Avenue to eastbound Mulberry Drive.
The suspect’s vehicle struck the Corolla where three-year-old Lany Castillo was seated. She was airlifted to USC Medical Center with major head trauma. The Corolla’s driver, Jorge Garcia, 55, and passenger, Estella Garcia, were also taken to the hospital. Estella suffered major injuries; Jorge’s injuries were minor. The couple are Lany’s grandparents.
Parker fled from the scene on foot but was found hiding in a nearby apartment complex on Carmenita Road. The passenger of the Highlander suffered minor injuries.
Randy Michaels was arrested in October in Middletown. Court officials said a prosecutor withdrew the driving under the influence charge Friday, and Michaels pleaded guilty to driving into a closed street. He was fined $30 and court costs.
His attorney, Steve Adams, says Michaels was not under the influence of alcohol and was innocent.
Police had reported that an officer spotted Michaels’ vehicle in a construction area and that he smelled of alcohol.
John Medeiros, now 59, is charged in connection with the death of 39-year-old Dwayne Bradley.
In October 2010, Medeiros was driving a 2000 Cadillac Deville and collided with a motorcycle as he was making a left turn onto Northeast 77th Street. Bradley, the driver of the motorcycle, was taken to Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville that night, where he was pronounced deceased.
According to police reports, Medeiros was visibly intoxicated at the scene. His driver’s license had been revoked for a previous DUI manslaughter charge. The 2010 charge was his second in two years.
An unshaven Medeiros, wearing a faded jail uniform, appeared in court Wednesday for a hearing. His defense attorney, Melanie Slaughter, planned to review with him a redacted recorded jail interview he had with authorities, which will be introduced in court next week.
Medeiros faces up to 30 years in prison. He has turned down plea deals from the State Attorney’s Office for 15-year and 20-year sentences.