A 19-year-old Whittier drunken driver could get a dozen years in prison when he is sentenced in December for causing a crash that killed a 14-year-old girl and critically injured another teen who were passengers in his overturned SUV, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Daniel Vasquez pleaded no contest to one felony count each of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage causing injury in connection with the April 26 crash in the 8400 block of Villaverde Drive in Whittier.
One of Vasquez’s passengers, Ivette Macias, 14, was pronounced dead at the scene of the 11:23 a.m. crash in which his SUV overturned.
A 15-year-old girl who was also in the SUV was critically injured and remains hospitalized, according to Deputy District Attorney Garie Lynn Oehler.
Vasquez was driving the girls — who were among a group of teens in the 2006 Ford Expedition — to La Serna High School in Whittier and was speeding when he lost control of the SUV, the prosecutor said.
The black box recovered from the vehicle showed that it was going 69 mph at the time of the crash — just under double the 35 mph speed limit on the residential street, according to the prosecutor.
Vasquez is free on bond that was posted two days after his arrest.
After his Tuesday no contest plea, he is due back in a Norwalk courtroom Dec. 13 for sentencing, and could face a sentence ranging from probation to 12 years in prison, the prosecutor said.
–City News Service
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