A repeat drunk driver who killed a 6-year-old lady after driving onto a sidewalk in a residential Fullerton neighborhood was sentenced Friday to fifteen years to life in jail.
Maximino Delgado Lagunas, 56, was convicted earlier this yr of second-degree homicide for the demise of Grace Aguilar, who he struck and killed throughout an alcohol-fueled crash within the 1400 block of Lombard Road in mid-afternoon on Feb. 17, 2018.
Lagunas, who was working as a painter at a close-by residence, had simply left his job web site when he apparently misplaced management of his Toyota 4Runner and drove onto the sidewalk on the other aspect of the road, the place Aguilar was taking part in.
After hanging Aguilar, Lagunas crashed right into a parked automobile. Based mostly on a subsequent toxicology check, investigators estimated that Lagunas’ blood alcohol degree was .22 % on the time of the crash, practically 3 times the authorized restrict.
Lagunas had been convicted of a earlier DUI in Buena Park in 2015. After that conviction, he acquired a proper warning — referred to as a Watson advisement — that if he continued to drive whereas below the affect and struck and killed somebody he could possibly be charged with homicide.
On account of that earlier warning, prosecutors following the 2018 deadly crash charged Lagunas with second-degree homicide, quite than a lesser depend of vehicular manslaughter.
“Little youngsters taking part in on a sidewalk shouldn’t have to fret about being hit and killed by drunk drivers,” Orange County District Lawyer Todd Spitzer stated in a ready assertion launched after the sentencing. “A six-year-old lady is lifeless as a result of somebody who had already been warned concerning the risks of consuming and driving ignored these warnings and received behind the wheel drunk.”