The son of a Texas woman who was killed by an alleged drunken driver in Lakeside last year testified Wednesday that he heard someone yelling from a car with no headlights right before his mother and stepfather were hit as they crossed Woodside Avenue.
Travis Kennedy, testifying in a preliminary hearing for Katie McGrosso, said that he, his girlfriend, his mother, stepfather and uncle had just left a Mexican restaurant and were headed to their cars when the accident happened about 8 p.m. last Sept. 25.
“I saw my stepdad fly in the air,” the witness said.
He said he saw a car stopped in the street and ran to his mother lying in front of it.
“Her pulse went away,” Travis Kennedy said of his mother, 55-year-old Lorraine Kennedy. Her husband, David Sandel, was seriously injured, suffering a lacerated liver, four broken ribs, leg and head injuries and a torn shoulder.
The witness said the defendant rolled out of her car onto the street. Sandel, of Brenham, Texas, testified that he and his wife were in San Diego to celebrate their granddaughter’s 4th birthday.
McGrosso, 21, is charged with second-degree murder, DUI and gross vehicular manslaughter. She faces 21 years to life in prison if convicted.
At Ellison’s arraignment, Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright told a judge that Ellison — an auto mechanic — went to a restaurant after work and had a vodka and a shot of Fireball whisky, followed by four shots of sake at a sushi bar.
Bright said Ellison then drove to Lakeside. She was traveling “at a significant speed” in the 12200 block of Woodside Avenue with her lights off and struck Kennedy and Sandel as they crossed the street, following Kennedy’s son and his girlfriend.
Kennedy ended up on Ellison’s windshield, and Sandel was thrown more than 100 feet, the prosecutor said.
Ellison also suffered major injuries when her Toyota Yaris struck the victims.
At the hospital, Ellison’s blood-alcohol level was measured at .12 percent, Bright said. The prosecutor said the defendant admitted that she had a prior DUI conviction when she was 17 and had attended six months of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
The preliminary hearing is expected to wrap up tomorrow. Judge Lorna Alksne will then decide whether enough evidence was presented for McGrosso to stand trial.
–City News Service
