Press release: Minor sentenced for DUI

Date: March 6, 2002
Contact: Deputy District Attorney Richard Yenovkian
Telephone: 875-5211
Type of proceeding: Disposition (sentencing)
Minor’s name: Name withheld because of age
Minor’s age: 17 at time of crime; now 18

District Attorney Jan Scully announced today that the 17-year-old male who was convicted of felony DUI vehicular manslaughter and felony DUI causing bodily injury to a second victim was sentenced to the California Youth Authority.

On 10/28/01 at 3:30 a.m. the suspect crashed head-on into a PG&E pole on Meadowview Road while traveling 45 mph. The female owner of the vehicle, age 25, was the right front passenger and died instantly of major blunt force trauma to her head and chest. A 21-year-old female in the back seat suffered broken ribs, a torn spleen, and lung damage requiring surgeries and 2 weeks of hospitalization. All three were under the influence of alcohol after they celebrated the upcoming 22nd birthday of the rear passenger. The two women were best friends and roommates.

Judge Kenneth G. Peterson did not believe the subject’s testimony that the accident was caused when the right front passenger reached to pull him towards her for a kiss, but instead jerked the steering wheel.

Deputy District Attorney Richard Yenovkian stated, “One reason the subject received the maximum penalty was because of his prior driving record. On 7/25/00 the minor drove a stolen vehicle while evading Sacramento Police officers. They were chasing him because he sideswiped a parked trailer and was running stop signs. The pursuit ended at a dead end street where the minor crashed into a house. While he was on felony probation for that chase, the teenager was driving at a high rate of speed, screeched around a corner with tires smoking and nearly smashed into a police car”.