Woman sentenced to six years for vehicular manslaughter
A drunk driver who drove the wrong way on state Route 52 in Santee and killed a 25-year-old man in a head-on crash was sentenced Nov. 5 to six years in state prison.
Probation was denied for April Carole Thompson, 23, who pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the crash, which killed Jayme Alan Midlam on Dec. 29, 2012.
Woman sentenced to six years for vehicular manslaughter
A drunk driver who drove the wrong way on state Route 52 in Santee and killed a 25-year-old man in a head-on crash was sentenced Nov. 5 to six years in state prison.
Probation was denied for April Carole Thompson, 23, who pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the crash, which killed Jayme Alan Midlam on Dec. 29, 2012.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein ordered Thompson to pay for Midlam’s funeral expenses, but the amount will be set at a future restitution hearing.
Thompson claimed she drank one glass of vodka around 4 p.m. before the 12:58 a.m. crash and did not eat much food afterwards. Her blood/alcohol level was .21.
El Cajon man sentenced to 12 years in fatal stabbing
Able Laris Torres, 41, of El Cajon, was sentenced Nov. 4 to 12 years in state prison for fatally stabbing Diego Castillo, 18, during a fight in the parking lot of an El Cajon apartment complex.
Torres pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the Aug. 31, 2012 incident at 1050 East Lexington in which a group of men got into fistfights. Castillo was stabbed in the back and the knife was later found in Torres’ home, said Deputy District Attorney Nikki Oskow.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Allan Preckel ordered Torres to pay approximately $5,000 for the funeral expenses of Castillo. Preckel imposed 11 years for manslaughter plus one year consecutively for the use of a knife as a deadly weapon.
A murder charge was dismissed after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Santee car buglers sentenced
Two auto burglars have been sentenced to seven and three years in state prison in a series in which property was taken from parked cars in Santee.
Hoss Douglas Gassaway, 22, received seven years for his guilty pleas to two auto burglaries and one residential burglary. Richard Harry Thomas, 26, got three years for his guilty pleas to two car burglaries and transportation of marijuana.
Gassaway received two years for the burglaries plus five years for a previous attempted robbery conviction by El Cajon Superior Court Judge John Thompson. He was fined $1,864, and Thomas was fined $1,434.
Ramona man acquitted in murder case
An El Cajon Superior Court jury acquitted a Ramona man of second-degree murder on Nov. 4 in the death of his girlfriend’s baby, but deadlocked 8-4 for conviction of involuntary manslaughter and assault upon a child.
David Humberto Ortiz, 21, appeared Nov. 8 before El Cajon Superior Court Judge Allan Preckel and will face retrial on the unresolved charges on Jan. 13, 2014. Ortiz’s attorney, Jane Kinsey, argued that Ortiz repeatedly told sheriff’s deputies the 8-month-old girl’s injuries occurred after she fell off a sofa in her mother’s home in Ramona.
Deputy District Attorney Fiona Khalil argued the brain injuries suffered by Liliana Velasquez occurred from a violent shaking and abuse by Ortiz, who was baby sitting her. Ortiz remains in jail without bail.
