Jury selection to start for accused drunk driver who crashed Hummer, killing 2

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SUV yields crash data

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA) - Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Author: Rod Leveque, Staff Writer

RANCHO CUCAMONGA - A judge Wednesday ordered a suspected drunken driver to stand trial on two counts of vehicular manslaughter after hearing evidence from a most unusual witness - the defendant's own high-tech car.

Police testified Wednesday they used the so-called "black box" recorder from Yvonne Sinclair 's Hummer H2 sport utility vehicle to reconstruct the crash that killed Kara Rosa Adella Maes, 22, of Chino and Sergio Lopez, 23, of Ontario.

The data they mined from the small electronic device showed that Sinclair never pressed the brakes of the SUV, was traveling at 80mph and had the throttle 100percent open at the time of the collision.

"She had her foot to the floor," accident reconstruction expert Wesley Vandiver testified.

Sinclair , 29, is charged in West Valley Superior Court with two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and two counts of drunken driving causing injury.

She has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said she had a blood alcohol level of more than 0.11 percent in the early morning of Jan. 21, 2006, when she crashed into a 2005 Nissan Altima at Central Avenue and San Bernardino Street in Montclair.

Maes and her best friend, Lopez, died at the scene.

Sinclair and her friends were on the way home from a Chino nightclub where they had celebrated the woman's birthday.

Several witnesses to the crash testified during Sinclair 's preliminary hearing Wednesday that they saw her SUV speeding and swerving through traffic moments before the crash.

Gerardo Guillen, who was on the road at the time, said the Hummer appeared unsafe as it barreled through traffic.

"The occupants seemed to be partying or having a good time in the car," Guillen testified.

But the most damning evidence came from the SUV itself.

Montclair police Cpl. William McCombs testified that he downloaded data from the vehicle's air bag control module, or "black box" recorder, as part of the investigation into the cause of the wreck.

The recorders, relatively new additions to cars, saves the data much in the way that black box recorders have done for decades for airplanes.

The computer collects input from sensors throughout the vehicle in order to decide when to deploy the air bags, McCombs said.

In the Hummer, the small, silver recorder sits under the carpet in the passenger compartment and measures vehicle speed, brake status, seat-belt status and the percentage of throttle applied.

Vandiver, a former California Highway Patrol investigator who now works for the Orange County District Attorney's Office, said he analyzed the data as part of his reconstruction of the crash.

According to his testimony, it allowed him to reconstruct the events in incredible detail.

The device saved information for the last five seconds before impact for some of the categories and eight seconds for others.

It showed that Sinclair was traveling at twice the 40mph speed limit at the time of the crash, he said.

The woman, he said, was traveling north on Central when Maes, traveling in the opposite direction, made a left turn in front of her.

According to the data, the Hummer was 300 to 600 feet - or the distance of one to two football fields - away from the Altima when Maes began the turn.

Maes, based on the distance, likely believed she had plenty of time to make it, he said.

If the Hummer were going slightly slower, Maes would have succeeded, Vandiver testified.

"If the Hummer was going anything below 69 mph, the collision does not happen," he testified.

Vandiver said nearly all new cars are equipped to record such data, but not all of them are set up to share it afterward.

General Motors, which produces the Hummer, has the most accessible information, he said.

"It's an exploding technology that will soon be available on all vehicles," he said.

After hearing the testimony, Judge Steve Malone ruled that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to take the case to trial.

Ironically, Sinclair 's live-in boyfriend was killed by an intoxicated driver several years before her own crash and, according to court records, Sinclair bought the Hummer shortly after receiving a financial settlement stemming from the death.

Sinclair was not seriously injured in the crash, though one of her passengers reportedly suffered a serious back injury.

She is scheduled to return to court March 10 to be arraigned.

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Driver faces tougher DUI charges in fatal '06 crash

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA) - Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Author: Rod Leveque, Staff Writer

RANCHO CUCAMONGA - Prosecutors upgraded charges Tuesday against a suspected drunken driver accused of killing two people in a car crash in Montclair.

The new charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated against Yvonne Sinclair could more than double the potential prison time she faces if convicted in the deaths of 22-year-old Kara Rosa Adella Maes and 23-year-old Sergio Lopez.

Deputy District Attorney Kent Williams would not reveal the thinking behind the decision, other than saying Sinclair 's actions on the night of the Jan. 21, 2006, crash warranted the more severe charges.

"The investigation is progressing, and we are taking everything into account," the prosecutor said.

Sinclair 's case is rife with irony and tragedy.

Her boyfriend was killed by an intoxicated driver about three years ago, leaving her to care for the three children they raised together.

After winning a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the children, Sinclair , 28, purchased a new Hummer H2 sport utility vehicle, which she was driving on the night she collided with Maes and Lopez.

According to police reports, Sinclair was driving home from a Chino nightclub when she hit the Nissan driven by Maes at the intersection of Central Avenue and San Bernardino Street.

Sinclair had a green light, and Maes apparently turned left in front of her.

Prosecutors, however, still believe the crash was Sinclair 's fault.

They say she had a blood alcohol level of 0.11 percent that night. The legal limit is 0.08 percent.

Further, based upon data they retrieved from a computer built into her vehicle, they believe the Rancho Cucamonga woman was driving erratically at speeds reaching 80 mph at the time of the collision.

Montclair police and the California Highway Patrol investigated the crash for nearly a year before prosecutors charged Sinclair with two counts of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence in January.

After additional review of the case, prosecutors this week decided to increase those charges to two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

With the new charges, prosecutors allege Sinclair 's actions went beyond ordinary carelessness into the realm of wanton disregard and indifference to human life.

Although the differences between the charges may seem insignificant, the differences in their punishments are not.

A standard charge of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated carries a maximum penalty of four years in state prison.

A conviction on the more severe charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated carries a penalty of up to 10 years behind bars.

Sinclair 's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Valarie Young, did not return a call seeking comment on the new charges Tuesday.

Sinclair , meanwhile, has said the crash devastated her life.

She said she was flabbergasted when prosecutors first charged her more than a year after the crash. She also said she believes she will be cleared of wrongdoing when the full facts of the case emerge.

Sinclair pleaded not guilty to the new charges Tuesday in West Valley Superior Court. She has been free on $250,000 bail awaiting a preliminary hearing.

Prosecutors have asked a judge to increase her bail to reflect the more severe charges.

A hearing is set for Monday. If the judge increases her bail, she could immediately be taken to jail.

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Fatal crash with a very sad twist

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA) - Saturday, February 10, 2007

Author: Rod Leveque, Staff Writer

RANCHO CUCAMONGA - Three years after a life-changing tragedy in which her live-in boyfriend was killed by an intoxicated driver, a Rancho Cucamonga woman has herself been charged with vehicular manslaughter for allegedly killing two people while driving drunk.

Yvonne Sinclair was behind the wheel of a brand new Hummer she bought just a month after winning a large settlement from her boyfriend's death when she collided with a Nissan Altima on Central Avenue in Montclair last year.

The crash instantly killed 22-year-old Kara Rosa Adella Maes of Chino and 23-year-old Sergio Lopez of Ontario.

"This is one you wouldn't have expected to happen," Montclair police Capt. Chris Weiske said. "It seems rather ironic and unfortunate that she didn't learn from her own misery."

Prosecutors charged Sinclair last month with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and two counts of drunken driving causing injury.

She has pleaded not guilty and is free on $250,000 bail awaiting trial.

Sinclair , 28, could not be reached for comment.

Her attorney did not return a telephone call last week seeking comment.

Her case, however, is rife with irony, sadness and three years' worth of strange twists.

Sinclair 's boyfriend, Robin Lee Felts, was killed in Ontario in December 2003 when a driver high on drugs slammed into a parked car, crushing Felts between the car and a worktruck.

Thomas Allen Castle was later convicted of vehicular manslaughter and sent to prison. Sinclair , who raised three young children with Felts, spoke at Castle's sentencing.

Sinclair later sued Felts and his employer over the crash. The lawsuit was settled in December 2005 when the employer agreed to pay about $600,000 to the couple's three children, court records show.

A month later, Sinclair bought a new Hummer H2, a state-of-the art sport utility vehicle.

She had it for less than a week when, on Jan. 21, 2006, she drove it home after celebrating her birthday with friends at Godfather's nightclub in Chino.

She sailed through the intersection at Central Avenue and San Bernardino Street and crashed into the much smaller Nissan Altima as it made a left turn in front of her.

Her SUV then careened into a building.

Maes and Lopez, best friends from high school, both suffered massive injuries and died.

Sinclair was not hurt, according to police reports, although one of her passengers did suffer a serious back injury.

Police say Sinclair had a blood alcohol level of 0.11 percent after the crash. The legal limit is 0.08.

She was booked on a homicide charge, but later released pending further investigation.

Montclair police, with the help of the California Highway Patrol, spent much of the next year reconstructing the crash to determine whether charges were appropriate, Weiske said.

According to court records, Sinclair had a green light and right-of-way to proceed through the intersection at the time of the crash.

Other evidence, however, including some recovered from her high-tech car, suggested she may have been at fault anyway.

As part of the crash reconstruction, detectives mined data from a microcomputer mounted under the driver's seat of Sinclair 's Hummer. The so-called event data recorder shows the woman's speed, acceleration and braking in the last seconds before impact.

According to police reports, she was driving 80 mph, with her throttle floored and little or no pressing of the brakes.

"We believe a reasonably prudent person not under the influence would have seen the Nissan making the turn," said Supervising Deputy District Attorney David Hidalgo, who filed the charges against Sinclair .

Maes' sister, Angela, said Friday her family had hoped the district attorney would charge Sinclair with murder.

Angela Maes said Sinclair 's experience in losing her boyfriend to a driver under the influence should have taught her that driving while intoxicated is dangerous to human life.

"She knew it firsthand from burying her boyfriend," Angela Maes said. "She knew what this was all about."

Hidalgo said he considered a murder charge, but believed the evidence does not support it.

He said the case is under investigation, and more severe charges could still come once all the evidence comes in.

Meanwhile, Angela Maes said her family is relieved Sinclair is finally facing criminal charges a year after the crash.

The Maes family remains bitter about Kara's death, largely because Sinclair has never reached out to them to apologize or express regret for their loss, Angela said.

"We're not trying to get blood or anything like that," Angela Maes said. "But we sure as hell want to get some kind of justice."