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Rodrigo Guevara could have faced, at the most, four years in state prison for felony hit-and-run - despite his egregious driving that left one girl severely injured on April 9 in Wilmington. Deputy District Attorney Danette Gomez said she isn't angry with the judge for offering Guevara three years. She's angry that, without intoxication, that the max he could get was four years, according to California Vehicle Code Section 20001(a)(2).

It doesn't get much better when the victim dies. Gomez, who is also prosecuting Cristian Herrera for a 1992 double fatal hit-and-run in San Pedro, said he is facing only eight years and four months maximum if convicted.

Are you angry? You can channel that into something productive by contacting your state representatives. They're in charge of fixing the punishments. Not sure who to contact? Look here and enter your zip code on the left hand side, down a few scrolls.

Previous blog entries on Guevara are here.

I just got word that Rodrigo Guevara pleaded no contest in Long Beach Superior Court on Thursday to one count of felony hit-and-run. He'll return to court Nov. 4 to be sentenced to an expected three years in state prison. The maximum penalty the charge carries is four years.

Working on a fuller story, but don't have much more to add than that at this point.

To read previous entries about this case, click here.

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. 

A suspected drunken driver crashed into a tree and house in Redondo Beach, police said today.

Melanie Hope Pierce-Uranga, 32, of Torrance lost control of her 2008 silver Honda as she drove south in the 400 block of South Lucia Avenue at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Redondo Beach police Sgt. Phil Keenan said.

The car struck a tree and the exterior wall of a house. No one inside was hurt.

Pierce-Uranga was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and released. She was given a citation for allegedly drunken driving, given a court date and released.

Is it like donuts? You know, you get 12 sentencing dates and the 13th is free? Ruben Vargas' senencing, scheduled for yesterday, was postponed to Oct. 14 for sentencing. Again.

The countdown (countup?) is being chronicled here.

 

A Torrance man is facing vehicular manslaughter charges for allegedly driving drunk and killing a 21-year-old in a Gardena crash. John Guerrero, 25, was charged Sept. 24 with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and vehicular manslaughter for the June 24 crash that killed Khalib Turner (left), an El Camino College student, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Preliminary reports said the 11:50 p.m. collision at El Segundo Boulevard and Normandie Avenue showed Guerrero crashed into Turner's driver-side door in the intersection.
Guerrero is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on Oct. 23 in Torrance Superior Court.

Previously: Gardena drunken driving victim identified; Possible El Camino College student

 

I received this e-mail today:

"Dear Mr. Altman,

I have been reading the emails between you, my brother, and my mother.  I am the mother of the boy who was killed.

You asked if there was anything you could do to help....
There are several very cruel and actually evil comments on the blog under your article.  As the moderator, if you could remove some of them which seemed to express joy in my son's death, and even  comments about how he looked (in the connotation of deserving to be dead), etc. (with captions like LOL)

Some of those comments are devastating to me, my husband, and Jakob's brother and my heart was racing for hours after seeing some of them.
If you are unsure which comments they are, I would be happy to cut and paste
and send them to you in email.

Thanks very much.
Heidi Weathermon
the mother."

Mrs. Weathermon is talking about user comments that appeared under a story I wrote the other day about the death of her son, Jakob. Jakob, 20, of Long Beach was killed last week when a big rig truck ran him over as he rode his bicycle near Carson.

I'm not a big fan of user comments because many people out there seem to take joy in writing crude, rude and hateful remarks.

I'm also not a moderator of them. I just reported and wrote the story. Readers are free to comment as they wish.

The paper has shut them down in this case and removed them. Unfortunately that meant more respectful comments also disappeared as well.

Hopefully those who write hurtful comments can realize the impact they have on grieving family members.

Previous entry and a link to the story of Jakob's death:
Family memorializes young man killed while riding bike near Carson

I got this over the weekend:

"I, as well as my community would like to get an update on the April 9,2008 hit and run on p.c.h. and ronan.in which 2 girls were injured . I heard through word of mouth that the alleged suspect is on trial. there has been no mention of the 2 girls or how they are ."

Rodrigo Guevara, 19, of Wilmington, was scheduled for trial last week. However, he is now scheduled to return to court Wednesday for a "pre-plea report" and pretrial. Although I have not confirmed this with anybody on the case, this usually signifies they are on the verge of working out a plea deal. I'll keep you posted.

I don't have an update on the injured girls beyond what I wrote in the last story about the incident. Follow the jump to see the story that ran July 3 on Guevara's preliminary hearing.

And thanks for the questions!