An Aug. 15 trial date was set Wednesday for a woman who allegedly kept driving after striking and fatally injuring a man whose body went through the windshield of her vehicle.
Esteysi “Stacy” Sanchez, 30, is charged with murder, gross vehicular manslaughter, hit-and-run, DUI causing injury and driving without a license in the death of 69-year-old Jack Ray Tenhulzen. The defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During a three-day preliminary hearing last month, witnesses testified that Sanchez drank at a nightclub during the night of June 27, 2016, and at a hotel early the next morning before trying to drive home.
Deputy District Attorney Robert Bruce said two of the defendant’s companions encouraged her not to drive before she left the hotel.
Authorities said Sanchez slammed into the victim around 6:15 a.m. in the 4000 block of Mission Avenue and traveled nearly one mile with the man’s body partially inside her Pontiac sedan and his detached lower leg on the trunk of her car. She pulled over in a cul-de-sac on Magdalena Drive and ran into her home, where she was later arrested.
Sanchez still had shards of glass in her hair when she was taken into custody, and her blood-alcohol content was between .18 and .19 percent — well above the legal limit of .08 — two hours after the collision, Bruce said.
The murder charge stems from her intent to drink at the hotel even though she would have to drive home, and her post-collision disregard for the victim in continuing to operate the vehicle, the prosecutor alleged.
If convicted, Sanchez faces up to 15 years to life in prison.
A readiness conference was set for Feb. 15.
–City News Service