A younger man who drove drunk on Halloween night time 2019 and ran down a Lengthy Seaside couple and their 3-year-old son was sentenced at this time to 25 years to life in jail.
Carlo Adrian Navarro, 23, was convicted in July of three counts every of homicide and gross vehicular manslaughter whereas intoxicated stemming from the deaths of Joseph Awaida, 30, Raihan Dakhil Awaida, 32, and their son, Omar. The household was struck round 9:55 p.m. Oct. 31, 2019, within the space of Nation Membership Drive and Los Cerritos Park Place.
Joseph Awaida died that night time. The couple’s son died Nov. 2, and his mom died the next day.
Navarro—who was 20 on the time of the crash—apologized in courtroom to the victims’ members of the family, saying, “I want I might carry them again, however I can’t.”
He instructed the courtroom that dealing with the victims’ kinfolk was his greatest worry, “realizing that I’ll by no means be capable of offer you guys again what you misplaced.” He added, “I’m actually sorry.”
Superior Court docket Choose Laura Laesecke referred to as the crash an “unspeakable tragedy” and mentioned she is aware of that Navarro “didn’t intend to kill the Awaida household, however his actions precipitated the lack of two generations.”
“Mr. Navarro, this was not simply a median night time once you had been going out along with your buddies. This was Halloween,” the decide mentioned, including that the choice that weighs most closely on her was Navarro’s “choice to hurry.”
Navarro was driving 60 mph in a residential neighborhood, and “that’s what took this household,” the decide mentioned.
Navarro was driving a 2002 Toyota Sequoia southbound on Nation Membership Drive and didn’t make a flip, in response to Lengthy Seaside police. As an alternative, he drove onto the sidewalk and hit the household as they had been strolling residence after an evening of trick-or-treating, authorities mentioned.
The defendant might have confronted as a lot as 45 years to life in jail, however the decide opted in opposition to imposing the utmost time period.
She famous that Navarro had no prior felony document and that he “stopped and took duty proper there” after the lethal crash—which she mentioned some adults don’t do.
The decide mentioned she had motive to imagine the defendant might be an asset to the neighborhood, including that maybe he might advocate for a legislation—maybe named in honor of the 3-year-old boy—that may require ignition interlock units for younger drivers who would wish to offer a breath pattern earlier than beginning a automobile.
“Attempt to use this time to do one thing good,” the decide instructed the defendant.
Grieving members of the family of the victims additionally spoke in courtroom through the emotional listening to in a Lengthy Seaside courtroom.
“There are not any phrases to explain the loss,” Joseph Awaida’s mom and Omar’s grandmother, Vera, mentioned. “The defendant has given us a life sentence … The world has misplaced greater than it is going to ever know.”
“You used your automotive as a weapon and also you ran over my household,” Joseph Awaida’s aunt, Cecilia Ramos, instructed Navarro.
Raihan Awaida’s father, Faisal Dakhil, instructed the decide, “On Halloween night time … I misplaced not one, not two, three members of my circle of relatives.”
“It’s a loss that we are able to’t describe,” he mentioned, noting that their pictures are “plastered throughout our home.”
Simply over per week after Navarro’s conviction, a girl who prosecutors mentioned operated a liquor retailer that furnished alcohol to Navarro earlier than the crash pleaded responsible to a misdemeanor rely of furnishing alcohol to a minor who consumed the alcohol and “thereby proximately causes nice bodily damage to themselves or another particular person.”
The girl, Amor Potestades Amacio, additionally pleaded responsible to a rely of conspiracy to impede licensing provisions of the Alcohol Beverage Management Act as a result of she was working a liquor retailer, Inexperienced Diamond Liquor, with out approval from the state division of Alcoholic Beverage Management, in response to the Lengthy Seaside Metropolis Prosecutor’s Workplace.
A video obtained by prosecutors reveals Amacio handing a bottle of whiskey to Navarro with out asking for identification or taking fee, in response to prosecutors. The younger man mentioned in a press release that the lady knew he was below 21, had offered him alcohol a number of instances previously and had directed him to return to the shop the next day with $25 to pay for the $16 bottle of whiskey, in response to the Metropolis Prosecutor’s Workplace.
Amacio was banned from ever holding a liquor license or collaborating in any enterprise or different industrial exercise involving the sale or distribution of alcoholic drinks in California, together with being sentenced to 364 days in custody, 5 years probation and 720 hours of neighborhood service, in response to prosecutors.
She was additionally ordered to submit proof of at the very least $1 million in civil legal responsibility insurance coverage which may be used to pay restitution to the victims’ household, together with a $1,000 donation to an area charity chosen by the victims’ household, in response to the Metropolis Prosecutor’s Workplace.
Amacio’s daughter, Syntyche Amacio, of Norwalk, pleaded responsible to conspiracy to impede licensing provisions of the Alcohol Beverage Management Act for being the “paper proprietor” of the liquor retailer whereas permitting her mom to function it, in response to the Metropolis Prosecutor’s Workplace.
Prosecutors contended that Syntyche utilized for and was issued a license to function the liquor retailer in North Lengthy Seaside, however that the shop was operated by her mom, whom prosecutors mentioned wouldn’t have been issued a brand new liquor license after being convicted in a case involving meals stamps.
The youthful Amacio was not current when alcohol was offered to Navarro, and there was no proof she had offered alcohol to minors on earlier events, prosecutors mentioned.
Like her mom, Syntyche Amacio was additionally banned from holding a liquor license or collaborating in any enterprise or different industrial exercise involving the sale or distribution of alcoholic drinks in California. She was additionally ordered to serve one yr probation, full 40 hours of neighborhood service and to donate $1,000 to an area charity chosen by the Awaida household, in response to the Metropolis Prosecutor’s Workplace.
“This is likely one of the most tragic occasions to ever occur in Lengthy Seaside, and it was completely preventable,” Metropolis Prosecutor Doug Haubert mentioned in a press release launched in July “There’s nothing a misdemeanor case can do to carry justice to the Awaida household, however we hope this can assist forestall an analogous tragedy sooner or later.”
