VANGUARD COURT WATCH: Vehicular Manslaughter Trial Continues

By Vanguard Court Watch Interns

The Quinteros trial continued this morning with witness Officer Galvez back on the stand with questions from the jury. After about three minutes, he was excused and witness Robert Luis Salaber, Jr., President of the engineering firm Salaber Associates, was brought to the stand.

According to Robert Salaber, they were hired by the City of Woodland for the management, administration and oversight of the construction of the freeway. A separate prime contractor was hired to do the actual physical work of the construction in which Salaber Associates oversaw.

He indicated that before a construction took place, you had to have an approved trafficking control plan and that the lane closure that occurred had been approved.

He testified that there were three signs that had been placed before drivers approached the construction zone. Pictures of the signs, taken during the scene of the accident, were shown to the jury.

The next witness was Sue Spencer, who testified about a different incident with Carlos Quinteros Hernandez.

Sue Spencer is a clerk at a post office in Redding, California. Her interaction of two years ago with Mr. Quinteros only consisted of brief exchanges of greetings when he delivers packages to the post office.

She testified that in October 2009, she stood on the dock as Mr. Quinteros backed up his truck on the side of the dock. She said she had yelled that he had hit the dock but he didn’t hear.

She described Mr. Quinteros’ weekly driving to the post office as ‘very fast’ and had told him numerous times to slow down. She also agreed that he wasn’t the only truck driver who drove fast because she has had to tell the UPS delivery trucks also to slow down on various occasions.

Mrs. Spencer then talked about another incident that occurred in February of 2010, when she felt the building shake after the same box truck and driver drove in with delivery.

Sherry Melton, mail carrier and coworker with Mrs. Spencer, confirmed the same story.

Mrs. Melton testified that when she heard the crash, she went outside to see if anyone had been hurt. She had seen the truck arrive and heard the crash few minutes right after.

She later found a piece of lens cap on the ground and took it to her boss. She noticed that the gutter had been broken as well as the wood piece on the roof. Mrs. Melton verified that the gutter had not been broken before because she normally does not get wet when she loads up her vehicle.

However, the day after the huge crash that she felt, the dock area got tremendously wet when it rained. She, too, verified that Mr. Quinteros’ driving was too fast. The last witness that agreed with the description of Mr. Quinteros’ driving and behavior was their boss, postmaster Janine Weston.

Defendant Ordered to Stand Trial on Possession Charges

By Lily Shen

On January 30, 2013 Teresa Thompson was being charged with possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine, with a misdemeanor charge of paraphernalia.

The first witness, Deputy Sheriff Mike Glaser, who has served 23 years with the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department, and witness two, Deputy Thomas Hayes, who has served over six years for the Yolo County Sheriffs Department, recounted the events of May 21, 2012 at 10:00 am.

The two officers were assigned to work with scrap metal cases. They arrived on that morning at the Green Zone Recycle Center in Yolo County, because they were contacted that scrap metal had arrived.

When they pulled up to the center, a subject was standing outside of the business.

Deputy Hayes stayed outside to question him while Deputy Glaser went inside. Deputy Hayes identified his subject as Kevin Engel. Deputy Glaser went inside and identified the defendant Teresa Thompson, while her Dodge truck was parked outside.

Mr. Engel initially told Deputy Hayes that the copper pipe was his father’s, but eventually Mr. Engel told Deputy Hayes that the metal pipe belonged to him and that Ms. Thompson was cashing it in for him.

Ms. Thompson eventually told Deputy Glaser, after several different stories, that she was cashing in the copper pipe for Mr. Engel. Both officers asked where they got the pipe from, and they told some location that was a lie, because Deputy Glaser knew about that location.

Mr. Engel was with Deputy Hayes for five to ten minutes before going inside and meeting up with Ms. Thompson and Deputy Glaser.

When Deputy Hayes was still outside talking to Mr. Engel, Deputy Glaser asked for Ms. Thompson’s consent to search her vehicle because there was a bike in the back of her truck. Deputy Glaser ran a stolen check on the bike with the serial number through the dispatch but found nothing.

Ms. Thompson initially refused to allow Deputy Glaser to search the truck because she was carrying a glass pipe in her purse, which she eventually took out and handed to Deputy Glaser.

Mr. Engel and Ms. Thompson were both arrested and Ms. Thompson was tested for being under the influence.

Deputy Hayes scraped the entire glass pipe and it was tested to .5 grams of meth. In most cases and in this case, most of the content would be found in the bowl of the pipe, where there is a melted chunk on the bottom of the bowl.

Ms. Thompson also had a blood test taken. Deputy Hayes performed an 11550 (Health and Safety Code, §11550 et seq.) evaluation but only performed a few of the tests.

In Deputy Hayes experience, he has performed at least 50 of these evaluations. Deputy Hayes believed Ms. Thompson was under the influence using the Nix test. Ms. Thompson’s lawyer asked the judge to reduce count one to a misdemeanor, to exercise discretion because the smallest usable amount of meth was found in the glass pipe.

Ms. Thompson’s last criminal offense was three years of prison, and was released in 2007. Her lawyer believed there should be a 17B (per Penal Code §17(b)) reduction to a misdemeanor.  However, based on her record and the fact that she was under the influence, 17B was not appropriate.

The judge said the court can’t ignore her previous record and denied the 17B motion. Arraignment is set for February 27, 2013, for 10 am in Department 4.