A Gilroy resident has been found guilty of causing the death of both her husband and daughter in an alcohol and prescription drug-fueled crash in Los Gatos in January of 2012, as reported by the Bay City News Service and the Gilroy Patch.
S.L., 52, had been charged with two counts of vehicular murder and one count of child endangerment. Her husband, F.L., 57, and daughter T.G., 26, were both killed in the crash. Her daughter's one-year-old son, also a passenger, survived.
According to Deputy District Attorney Matt Braker, S.L. consumed up to eight shots vodka and took oxycodone before getting behind the wheel.
The accident occurred on a highway near Winchester Boulevard as the group headed toward Belmont. S.L., driving over 85 mph, crashed into a pickup truck after she had made an unsafe lane change.
S.L. could not control her vehicle following the impact and it flipped several times before stopping in the center of the roadway. T.G. was not wearing a seatbelt in the backseat and was ejected onto the highway, F.L. wore a seatbelt but was partially ejected from his front seat, and the child, as well as S.L., survived without serious injury.
Braker argued that S.L. committed murder with implied malice aforethought – due to the fact that she knowingly drank and took drugs without regard to the threat it posed for her passengers.
S.L. had a previous arrest for suspicion of DUI. For that charge she completed a 12-hour class on drunk driving and was warned by medical professionals about the dangers of DUI.
An expert witness testified that S.L.'s blood alcohol before the accident was approximately .20 percent.
Braker told the jurors, "This case is about a defendant being aware of a risk and going ahead and doing it anyway. It's way down the road as far as egregious conduct. Two people died…She's at .20, seven to eight drinks in the course of an hour is what it's going to take. That's a lot of booze in your system."
S.L.'s grandson, though strapped in a car seat, was not in the correct car seat for his young age, according to Braker. He asked jurors to find S.L. guilty of child endangerment, as well.
Defense attorney Javier Rios represented S.L. in court. Under his questioning, S.L. said she had driven drunk "thousands of times" before without causing an accident.
Rios told the jurors that the prosecution failed to provide evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that S.L. intended to kill her husband and daughter. Rios said that for his client to behave that way "her heart would have to be so cold, depraved, malignant…Any murder charge is for the worst of the worst. That's not what we have here."
Rios argued that his client mistakenly took a fast-acting oxycodone pill instead of a slow-release pill – that she normally took before driving – and the faster acting pill can cause abrupt drowsiness.
Rios said that "All of a sudden this sleepiness hit her like a ton of bricks, and it's too late. She goes to sleep…only a few moments for the tragedy to happen…"
Whether you have been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or under the influence of drugs, contact a DUI attorney to best represent you in court.