A woman who prosecutors say was intoxicated when she crashed into a popular taco stand on 4th and Clarence Streets –killing one man and injuring eight other people– has been sentenced to one year in jail and five years of formal probation, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Thursday.
Judge Laura F. Priver handed down the sentence to Maribel Rosas, 37, of South Gate. On January 24, Rosas pleaded no contest to one felony count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
The crash happened around 9:30 pm on June 26, 2016. Witnesses said Rosas went up a curb, drove through the taco stand and crashed into a parked car.
The man killed was 48-year-old Francisco Gaytán, an undocumented day laborer who sometimes went as Juan Méndez. He was a resident of the Proyecto Guadalupe homeless shelter, about a block away from where the crash took place.
According to authorities, three of the injured were taken to a hospital for treatment, two of them in critical condition. KTLA reported that one of the injured was the taquero, the man operating the stand.
In a press release, the DA’s office said the judge actually suspended a six-year state prison sentence and ordered Rosas to complete several alcohol awareness programs. No explanation was given for the suspension.
