After nearly a dozen delays - sentencing done for HB house crasher

A man began serving a 16-month prison sentence today for leaving the scene of an accident when the truck he was in plowed into a Hermosa Beach house, hurting a young boy.

Ruben Vargas, 44, pleaded no contest in August 2007 to the one count. However, medical problems, family issues and arguments over how much restitution he would pay caused his sentencing to be postponed about a dozen different times.

It's still not clear if Vargas was driving the night of Oct. 6, 2006, when the silver pick-up truck crashed into the side of the home in the 900 block of Beach Drive. Inside, a 5-year-old boy sleeping in the bunk below his twin brother. The truck pinned him down before reversing and fleeing. The boy's leg was broken, but he otherwise recovered.

Vargas, who has a history of driver's license suspensions, claims he was the passenger and switched seats with a woman who was driving when she panicked.

The almost unbelievable saga of his sentencing is chronicled here.