Vehicular manslaughter charges filed in limo driver's death

FONTANA -- Prosecutors filed gross vehicular manslaughter charges this week against a man accused in a 2008 drunken driving crash on the 15 Freeway.

Marc Anthony Saavedra, 30, is accused of crashing his pickup truck on April 29, 2008 into a limousine that was parked on the shoulder of the freeway near the Sierra Avenue offramp in Fontana, according to a California Highway Patrol spokesman.

The limo driver, Frantz Jones of Compton, was hospitalized in critical condition after the crash, Officer Jeff Briggs said.

Saavedra was convicted in March of two felonies -- hit and run and DUI causing injury -- and sentenced to a year in jail.

Between then and Wednesday, when prosecutors filed manslaughter charges, Jones succumbed to injuries he suffered in the crash, according to the felony complaint filed by prosecutors.

Briggs said today that he didn't know when Jones died, and the prosecutor who filed the case, Deputy District Attorney Norma Alejo, could not be reached for comment.

Saavedra was arrested Thursday and held without bail at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, according to booking records.

Gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

Jones' limo was parked on the shoulder of the freeway because the vehicle had mechanical problems, Briggs said.

Jones and a passenger were standing beside the limo when it was sideswiped. The passenger, Mary Lucas of Ontario, was injured in the collision, Briggs said.