Recent Posts in VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER Category

A 20-year-old San Juan Capistrano man was recently arrested for suspicion of DUI in relation to an accident which killed his passenger.

According to reports, the man lost control of his vehicle on PCH in Dana Point and crashed into a palm tree.  The impact instantly killed his passenger, a 24-year-old man from Lake Elsinore.  The man, meanwhile, was transported to the hospital and remains in intensive care. 

Suzanne Amelia Carlson, a 27-year-old  Mission Viejo woman, is currently on trial in the Orange County Superior Court on charges of 2^nd degree murderin relation to 2007  DUI accident which killed her passenger, 55-year-old Scott Turner of Dove Canyon.

Carlson, who has three prior driving under the influence convictions, is also charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated with prior convictions and faces 15 years to life if convicted.

According to the prosecutor’s case, Carlson was drinking for more than two hours at a Rancho Santa Margarita restaurant before leaving with Turner in Turner’s car.  She subsequently veered across two lanes of traffic on the 91 Freeway and rear-ended an 18-wheel Fed Ex truck, smashing the passenger side of Turner’s car, before hitting a wall.  Turner died shortly thereafter from massive internal injuries.

Test taken 90 minutes after the accident revealed Carlson’s blood alcohol level was .22 percent.             

Two men were  arrested in connection with a fatal car accident in Santa Ana over the weekend.

According to reports, the driver of a Toyota Tundra was allegedly fleeing the scene of a traffic collision when he ran a red light and smashed into the passenger side of a Toyota Corolla.  The 20-year-old female passenger of the Corolla died at the scene while the 21-year-old male driver of the Corolla suffered minor injuries. 

The 22-year-old driver of the Tundra was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder, vehicular manslaughter, felony DUI, felony injury hit-and-run and possession of a controlled substance. 

The driver of the Corolla was also arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. 

An Orange County jury convicted a Costa Mesa man of  felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for the death of a 32-year-old pedestrian in Newport Beach in 2008.

According to prosecutors, the man was texting while driving in the minutes just preceding the accident.  Additionally, a driver behind the man also honked at him for delaying 10-15 seconds before turning on a green light.  It was after this turn that the man hit the victim, a nanny walking in a crosswalk on her way to work.     

The man, whose sentencing is set for March, faces up to 9 years in prison.  

A 23-year-old Huntington Beach man has been arrested in connection with a recent DUI accident in Garden Grove which killed his 22-year-old female passenger.

According to reports, the man lost control of his vehicle while trying to traverse a curve in the road and crashed into a tree.  He is expected to face charges of felony driving under the influence, vehicular manslaughter and driving without a license.         

Update:  The 18-year-old woman left in critical condition after the car she was riding in was rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver near John Wayne Airport has died of her injuries. 

Robert Charles Serrano, the man arrested in connection with the accident, has now been charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and felony fleeing of an accident scene.  He remains in-custody in Orange County Jail on $250,000 bail.  Reports indicate Serrano has been convicted of one prior DUI as well as several traffic violations.        

18-year-old Luicci Nader of Huntington Beach has been identified as the driver of the Ferrari involved in the Christmas Eve crash which killed his 24-year-old passenger.

Nader is reported to have lost control of his vehicle, jumped the median and hit a tow truck head on, causing the Ferrari to split in two and catch fire.  He is not believed to have been driving under the influence, however, it is suspected he was speeding. 

Nader, who is still in critical condition at a Santa Ana hospital, may face charges of vehicular manslaughter if he recovers.     

A 22-year-old Orange County man, convicted of felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence while intoxicated, was sentenced to six years in state prison. 

A jury found the man guilty of the charges which resulted in the 2007 death of a 14-year-old boy riding his bike.  According to prosecutors, at the time of the accident, the man was driving under the influence of Xanax and Vicodin as well as texting on his cell phone.

The man’s sentence also included a three year term of parole, $28,000 in restitution and a three year revocation of his driver’s license.        

An Orange County jury found 22-year-old former Marine Elijah Ferguson guilty of 2^nd degree murder in the death of Dr. Michael Sein.  The conviction, which also included charges of driving under the influence causing injury and driving with a blood alcohol of 0.08 percent or more causing injury in connection with injuries suffered by Dr. Sein’s wife, came almost two years after the Newport Beach accident.   

According to prosecutors, on the night of the incident, Ferguson was playing drinking games with fellow Marines at Camp Pendleton.  He became so intoxicated the others took his cars keys in an attempt to prevent him from driving.  Ferguson, however, ordered a lower-ranking Marine to give him back his keys so that he could go home to his wife who had threatened to divorce him and leave with his son.

Ferguson, whose blood alcohol level at the time of the crash was 0.15-0.16, rammed into the back of Dr. Sein’s idling Aston Martin at more than 75mph. 

Prosecutors opted to charge Ferguson with 2^nd degree murder, rather than vehicular manslaughter, arguing he was particularly aware of the dangers to human life created by driving while intoxicated yet did so anyway.  His defense attorney, however, claimed Ferguson suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome and was too traumatized by his combat experience in Iraq, to comprehend the Marine lectures warning about the dangers of drinking and driving.        

Ferguson is set to be sentenced next month in the Santa Ana courthouse.  He faces a maximum sentence of 21 years to life. 

A 39-year-old Riverside man pled guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter by unlawful act without gross negligence and misdemeanor possession of marijuana while driving in relation to a December 2008 accident on the 55 Freeway in Orange which killed a two-year-old girl. 

According to reports, the man’s truck crashed into the rear end of the victims’ SUV, at an estimated speed of 55 to 65 mph, after a car immediately ahead of the SUV blew a tire and stopped in the lane.  The girl’s father and 3-month-old brother suffered only minor injuries.  The girl, however, died at the hospital of blunt force trauma to the head and chest.    

Orange County prosecutors explained the man, who was not under the influence at the time of the crash, was charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter because the incident lacked the presence of “gross negligence”, necessary to justify a felony charge.

The man was sentenced to 3 years probation, 300 hours of community service through MADD and had his license suspended for 18 months.   

Former Hyundai executive and Irvine resident Youn Bum Lee was sentenced to nine years in prison for the 2005 alcohol-related hit and run that killed a 23-year-old Huntington Beach motorcyclist.

Lee pled guilty to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated with an included sentencing enhancement for fleeing the scene.  According to reports, at the time of the accident, Lee was driving drunk without lights on the 55 Freeway in Santa Ana after leaving a company party in Garden Grove.  He lost control of his car and struck the victim in the carpool lane before crashing into the center divider. 

Lee fled the scene, abandoned the vehicle at his office in Fountain Valley and, less than 24 hours later, boarded a plane to South Korea.  He was captured in Seoul and extradited back to Orange County in December 2008.  

A 45-year-old Garden Grove man was recently sentenced in the Orange County Superior Court to 6 years in state prison after pleading guilty to vehicular  manslaughter with gross negligence, driving while intoxicated and other criminal charges.      

The sentence resulted from an April 2009 incident in which the man ran down two men who were in the process of changing a tire on the shoulder of the I-5 freeway near the Harbor Boulevard off ramp in Anaheim.  The man lost control of his truck while trying to exit the freeway and struck both men, ages 23 and 21, at an estimated speed of 55 mph.

The 23-year-old victim died at the scene while his cousin, the 21-year-old victim, sustained fractures to his skull and jaw.

The driver showed obvious signs of intoxication when contacted by police and, two hours after the accident, his blood alcohol level was determined to be 0.15.                    

A 29-year-old Fullerton woman was sentenced to six years in state prison after pleading guilty in October to two felony counts of vehicular manslaughter by unlawful act with gross negligence while intoxicated.  

The conviction was the result of a January 12, 2008 single car accident which killed the  woman's boyfriend and 2-year-old daughter, both passengers in the vehicle.  
According to reports, the woman was high on methamphetamine, falling asleep at the wheel and speeding.  As she exited the 91 Freeway in Fullerton, she lost control, drove through a fence and hit a utility pole.

Her boyfriend and daughter suffered fatal head injuries.