O.C. teen guilty of killing one, injuring four in DUI crash
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An Orange County teenager was convicted Tuesday of killing one teenage passenger and injuring four others as he drove under the influence of alcohol, prosecutors said.
Jesus Manzo Torres, 19, pleaded guilty to one felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence while intoxicated, according to a statement from the Orange County district attorney’s office. As part of his plea, prosecutors said, Torres will face no more than 14 years in state prison. He is set to be sentenced in February.
Early on the morning of Nov. 6, 2011, prosecutors said, Torres -- a Tustin resident -- had five passengers loaded into his brother’s 1996 Subaru sedan, and drove at a high speed on southbound Santiago Canyon Road. Prosecutors said he swerved the vehicle onto the other side of the street, left the roadway and slammed into a tree.
Two of the passengers, who were not wearing seat belts, were thrown from the vehicle. The front-seat passenger, George Cisneros, 18, was taken to a local hospital, where he died. Prosecutors said the others suffered from such injuries as concussions, broken vertebrae, and fractured sternums and jaws.
About an hour after the accident, prosecutors said Torres displayed physical signs of being under the influence and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.15%.
The man who purchased the alcohol for Torres on the night of the accident, Daniel Rodriguez, pleaded guilty earlier this month to a misdemeanor count. Prosecutors said Rodriguez, 36, was sentenced to 90 days in Orange County jail, three years of informal probation and mandatory participation in a Mothers Against Drunk Driving victims’ impact panel. ALSO:
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