San Diego Man Gets 15 to Life for Lethal DUI Accident

In San Diego, California, 47 year old John Joseph Taskey was sentenced for his fifth DUI conviction.  Mr. Taskey received a sentence of 15 years to life in prison this past Wednesday for a DUI accident that he caused on a freeway in San Diego this past year.  During the DUI accident, a 75 year old woman was killed.

On October 14th, Mr. Taskey pled guilty to second-degree murder charges in relation to the death of the woman, named Rosa Degerman.  He was also facing gross vehicular manslaughter and felony DUI charges, but those charges were dropped in light of the plea.

Court testimonies revealed that Taskey was driving his Chevrolet pickup truck west bound on Interstate 8 on September 13, 2007.  While driving, he slammed into the back of a black Ford Focus at approximately 6:30 PM.   Rosa Degerman was a passenger in the vehicle who sustained critical injuries during the accident.  She died the very next day in a local hospital.  Her 11 year old granddaughter was also in the vehicle at the time of the collision.  She suffered a broken shoulder from the accident.

Taskey was placed under arrest by law enforcement shortly after the accident.  They measured his blood alcohol concentration two hours after the accident had occurred and it was 0.10%.  In California, the legal blood alcohol limit is .08%.  Taskey has five previous DUI convictions and, each time he was caught by police, he was driving with a suspended driver's license. 

On the day of Taskey's sentencing, the victim's daughter, Gregoria Vigil, read a statement that her brother had written about the fatal incident.   The statement requested that the judge presiding over the case impose the harshest sentence possible so that other families would not suffer the same fate as their family had suffered.  Taskey did not make a statement while in court.

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