If you kill someone with your vehicle while you are driving drunk over the holidays, or anytime really, you can be charged with second-degree murder and a state grant of $500,000 will help prosecute you.
“Year after year we see senseless deaths and injuries due to drinking and driving,” said District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. “Constant education on this issue is required.”
Dumanis recently received the grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety which funds two full time prosecutors and an investigator solely to focus on DUI homicide cases.
If an intoxicated driver has a prior conviction for DUI, or the circumstances involve multiple fatalities or other factors, second-degree murder is an option charge along with vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
A jury would have to decide whether the crime is second-degree murder, which carries a 15-year to life prison term, or vehicular manslaughter, which can bring a 10-year sentence or more. A murder conviction means you could be held in prison for life.
“This grant will help us and our law enforcement partners deliver justice in the most serious DUI cases and send a message that our community won’t tolerate impaired drivers on our streets,” said Dumanis.
The DA investigator will aid law enforcement agencies track down an impaired motorist who often leaves the scene. Having a specialized unit is expected to create uniformity in sentencing.
Here are three case examples where the DA has filed a second-degree murder charge against drivers who were allegedly intoxicated:
A waiter at a popular La Jolla restaurant, Bryan Delaney, 36, was struck on his motorcycle on his way home from work by Jeremy Lucas Salcedo, 26, July 25, after Salcedo made a U-turn on Morena Blvd. Delaney died in hospital Aug. 3.
Salcedo was charged with second-degree murder as prosecutor Geoff Allard said Salcedo had two prior convictions for drunk driving in 2013 and in 2006. Allard said repeat drunk drivers are made aware they could face a murder charge if they kill someone in another DUI crash.
Salcedo drove away from the scene near Balboa Avenue without stopping, but was arrested around an hour later at 1 a.m. Salcedo has pleaded not guilty and awaits a March 2, 2015 preliminary hearing in San Diego Superior Court. He is free on $500,000 bond.
Two 20-year-olds were killed after they were the passengers of Mario Alberto Carranza, 25, after Carranza was driving them home around 7:20 a.m. April 18 from a party in Alpine. Monica Yvette Lupercio and Carlos Kristopher Vargas, 20, died when Carranza lost control of his vehicle on Interstate 8 and overturned it in a concrete culvert in Blossom Valley.
Carranza’s blood/alcohol level was .25, which is three times the legal limit. Carranza drank between 9-14 drinks, according to Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright. He has a previous DUI conviction.
Carranza attempted to sleep off his intoxication in an empty bathtub at the party, but he woke up at 7 a.m. still drunk. He also tested positive for cocaine use, and .30 grams of the drug was in his pocket, said Bright.
Carranza was ordered to stand trial on two second-degree murder charges in El Cajon Superior Court and will get a trial date set Jan. 5, 2015. If he’s convicted, he could get 30 years to life. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in jail on $1 million bail.
A cabdriver, Anteneh Minassie, 42, was killed April 19 on Interstate 5 after Amy St. John, 42, struck his cab at 2:10 a.m. near Old Town. Minassie survived the crash, but was killed after exiting his disabled cab which struck him when hit by another car.
Minassie was married with three children who came with him from Ethiopia in 2004. St. John was driving the wrong way on I-5 and left the scene, but was arrested later. She has pleaded not guilty and faces a March 17, 2015 trial. St. John remains in jail on $500,000 bail.
