A man who was drunk when he drove off in an ambulance from Scripps Mercy Hospital with two patients inside pleaded guilty Thursday to elder abuse and misdemeanor DUI charges.
Saeed Cervantes Salmeron, 31, also admitted a 2006 robbery conviction and a prior DUI conviction, said Deputy District Attorney Scott Pirrello.
Salmeron will be sentenced to four years in state prison at a hearing May 25.
The prosecutor said Salmeron got into the ambulance just after 6 p.m. on March 20 as the driver dropped off a patient at the hospital. A 71-year-old woman and a 65-year-old man in a wheelchair were inside the vehicle, Pirrello said.
The prosecutor said Salmeron actually dropped the woman off at her appointment before being pulled over.
A subsequent breath test showed that the defendant had a .28 percent blood-alcohol content, more than three times the legal limit for driving, according to the prosecutor.
–City News Service