Man Sentenced in El Monte, California Street Racing Car Accident

An El Monte guy has been sentenced to a single calendar year in county jail and five several years on probation for his role in a avenue racing linked car accident last calendar year in which his pal was killed and the passenger in the other car critically injured.

In Oct 2007, 19-calendar year-outdated Fitzgerald Paragas experienced been racing with his pal eighteen-calendar year-outdated Brian Ramirez. Just prior to that, they experienced been looking at the avenue racing film “The Fast and the Furious” and made the decision to have a race of their individual. As the two continued to race on the streets, Brian missing handle of his car. His Mitsubishi careened across the median and into incoming targeted visitors. A Volkswagen Jetta carrying the Saavedra loved ones was coming in the reverse route, and the Mitsubishi crashed into it. Ramirez was killed quickly, whilst the Saavedra loved ones suffered major injuries. At the time of the crash, Ramirez’s vehicle was seemingly likely at ninety mph.

Soon after the crash, Paragas experimented with to mislead police into believing that he experienced not been aspect of the car accident at all. His original claim was that he was at home at the time of the car crash, and experienced acquired a phone from Ramirez who reported he would be coming in excess of. Soon after waiting around for an hour, when there was continue to no signal of his pal, Paragas explained to police he experienced driven off to take a glance. It was then that he arrived on the car crash site the place his pal was killed. Later on however, Paragas broke down, and admitted that he experienced been racing much too.

He was billed with a single felony count of murder with the special allegation of resulting in great bodily personal injury, a single felony count of vehicular manslaughter and 4 counts of felony reckless driving resulting in personal injury, as properly as misdemeanor avenue racing. A judge has now sentenced him to a single calendar year in county jail. He will also be expected to pay back restitution to the Saavedra loved ones, a $100 court security cost and a $twenty restitution cost. He is also prohibited from driving whilst less than probation, and will have to take part in a risk-free driving program. He will also be expected to teach higher university students on risk-free driving as aspect of his sentence. The judge admitted that Paragas’ lack of a prior prison document and letters penned to the judge by the younger man’s university teachers experienced led to what can only be identified as a mild sentence.

The district legal professional requested the judge to impose a 4-calendar year prison sentence to be suspended. If Paragas violates the conditions of his probation, he would have to provide time in jail. Paragas was facing a highest of eight several years and eight months, and the prosecution experienced requested for a sentence of 4 several years to six several years.

Street racing can be either spontaneous races, like the a single that seems to have taken location below, or coordinated races that are planned in advance of time. In either case, they can cause major injuries and fatalities. With the higher speeds that are the norm in the course of this sort of races, a lot of motorists’ lives are endangered simply simply because they ended up unlucky plenty of to be all-around the scene when a race was on. Thinking about the gravity of Paragas’ action and the dying that it resulted in, a stiffer sentence would have given out a more powerful information to would-be avenue racers.