DA May Have Charged Second Death in DUI Case Where Victim is Still Alive and Stable

In a sad and tragic story, 19-year-old defendant Timothy Patrick Hernandez was charged with two counts of felony gross vehicular manslaughter, one count of felony DUI with an enhancement for causing great bodily injury and one count of misdemeanor driving without a license, after an arrest early Saturday morning for suspicion of felony DUI.

I do not want to do anything that disparages the tragic nature of this case, but what happened next needs to be filed under the truly bizarre.

Writes James Noonan of the Democrat, “During the arraignment, Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven… noted that a second count of gross vehicular manslaughter had been added earlier that morning after the DA’s Office received word from CHP that a second victim, 19-year-old Eddie Salazar, had died in the hospital.”

However, reports the Democrat, “Members of Hernandez’s family immediately took issue with the claims, and began calling for the attention of Commissioner Janene Beronio, from the back of the courtroom.”

The report continues, “After being acknowledged by Beronio, various family members claimed that Salazar was currently in stable condition and had been in contact with them only a half hour prior to the arraignment.”

According to the Democrat, “CHP Sgt. John Scugart previously told The Democrat that Salazar sustained serious head injuries and was airlifted to the UC Davis medical center in Sacramento, however, a representative for the hospital said that they had no record of a patient under that name.  A spokeswoman for Woodland Memorial Hospital also confirmed that Salazar was never admitted as a patient there.” Apparently, there had been another patient at UCDMC with that name, and this Eddie Salazar had been admitted under the name “Eddie Gonzalez.”

“Chief Deputy Coroner Robert LaBrash was unable to comment whether a second death had stemmed from the accident, saying he had heard only ‘rumors’ but that nothing concrete had been received by his office,” the Democrat continues.

This is a horrible tragedy, regardless, and the driver of the vehicle should he be convicted and appropriately punished for his crimes and the tragic death of Ms. Rodriguez.  But the DA’s office better be sure to get their facts correct when charging someone with homicide.  They had better be sure that the victim is actually deceased.  That sounds ludicrous and that is because it is ludicrous.

Clearly something is amiss with the information, given that the hospital claimed the individual, as named, was never admitted.

It is also concerning to see the comment made by Chief Deputy Coroner Robert LaBrash, referring to  “rumors.”   Now the DA’s office is adding charges, based on rumors of someone’s death?

What would be wrong with the DA charging the defendant in the death of the first individual, and then waiting to confirm the death of the second individual before attempting to charge that?  There is no reason they cannot add charges later.

This type of error not only hurts the defendant, it hurts the family and friends of the victim – both victims.

Writes the Democrat, “Hernandez, who was currently out on bail, was taken into custody after a new bail amount of $600,000 was set. Should the second count of gross vehicular manslaughter be removed, bail would be reduced to $360,000, a notion Beronio said she would “certainly entertain” when revisiting the matter Thursday.”

Give credit to the Daily Democrat here.  They went to arraignment.  Arraignments are usually pro forma events and do not generate a lot of news.  However, on this day, it generated what should be a huge story.  I think this again illustrates why news organizations need to verify the information given by public agencies, as sometimes they make mistakes. 

The Vanguard has not generally sought to cover DUI cases, but we will be following this one now.

—David M. Greenwald reporting