Results matching “cristian herrera” from Crime & Courts

Cristian Herrera got one year in jail this morning, as reported by Max Zimbert, who is working up a longer story to go up later on dailybreeze.com and in The Daily Breeze tomorrow.

Previously, we reported that Herrera took a deal that prosecutors didn't like - but the sentencing laws were pretty restrictive, so he wouldn't have received much more if convicted at trial.

Eugene Pollack, whose wife, Joan, was struck as she crossed a San Pedro street on March 22, 1992, sent this letter to respond to the way the case is concluding. The crash killed his friends, Fred and Ezna Crescitelli of Westwood, who were walking with them.

The suspect, Cristian Herrera, who drove away, fled to Mexico and remained free for 16 years, was arrested in August following a Daily Breeze article on the case. He had returned to San Pedro.

On Wednesday, he pleaded no contest to the charges and will serve a 6-year suspended prison sentence, and 365 days in jail. He's already served enough time in jail to get out. He will then be deported.

Here's what Dr. Pollack, a Rancho Palos Verdes resident had to say:

"The only people satisfied with the outcome, a slap on the wrist, are Mr.Herrera, his attorney, the police, the District Attorney and the judge. Mr. Herrera no longer has to worry about being brought to justice, his attorney essentially got him off, the police did their job and caught him, the DA won(?), the judge didn"t have to think.

The case is over and the book is closed. The people not satisfied are those who knew and loved the victims and the public. For the lesson here, is that if a criminal can evade capture long enough, there is little or no punishment. That cannot be good for a safe and orderly society."

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've written several stories over the years about unsolved crimes from the past. None of them 

have brought forward the tips to catch the suspect, and it's always quite disappointing.

A couple of months ago, police asked me to try again. Detectives at the LAPD's South Traffic Bureau told me they had this San Pedro fatal hit-and-run case with a named suspect they had not found since the crime in 1992. The guy had run to Mexico and had been wanted ever since. They suggested I put an article in the paper about him.

I did a little checking in our archives and found a few stories written at the time of  Fred and Ezna Crescitelli's deaths.

I decided to turn this into what we call a "Sunday Package," a more indepth article than what I usually do.  I found the Crescitellis' children and Eugene Pollack, whose wife, Joan, was also struck as she crossed the street with them that night.