A twice-convicted drunken driver was charged Friday with second-degree murder and DUI for allegedly plowing an SUV into an Irvine family walking home from a park, killing a 44-year-old mother and injuring her husband and two teenage children.
Kamal Akwette Attoh, 37, of Irvine, is due before a Santa Ana judge Friday afternoon on the murder charge, along with three counts each of DUI with a blood alcohol content of .08 or more and driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, with sentencing enhancement allegations of inflicting great bodily injury.
Attoh faces a murder charge instead of vehicular manslaughter because he was previously convicted of driving drunk in November 2000 in Orange County and in March 2002 in Ventura County, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Whitney Bokosky.
Attoh is accused of killing Jeongmi Choi as she was walking home from a nearby park with her family about 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Choi’s 49-year-old husband suffered a ruptured spleen and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, Bokosky said. The couple’s 15-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son were also hospitalized, but have since been released, she said.
After the defendant’s 2012 BMW X5 slammed into the family on a sidewalk along Ridgeline Drive near Turtle Rock Drive, the vehicle careened down an embankment and slammed into a tree, Bokosky said.
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