A twice-convicted drunken driver was charged this week with murder for an alleged alcohol-fueled crash that killed two people, including a San Diego woman, in Irvine.
Alice Read, 25, of San Diego, and an unidentified man died in Sunday’s crash, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Todd Hylton.
Jorge ErastoCruz, 33, of Lake Forest, faces two counts of second-degree murder, driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and a count of DUI with a blood-alcohol level at 0.08% or higher causing injury, all felonies.
He was also charged Tuesday with a misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended or revoked license due to DUI.
ErastoCruz is on probation for two DUIs in 2019, according to court records. He was being held on $1 million bail in Orange County Jail.
The crash occurred about 2:10 a.m. Sunday on southbound Interstate 5 just north of Yale Avenue, according to the California Highway Patrol.
A 2016 Honda Civic, which stopped on the right shoulder of the freeway. Read sat in the middle rear seat. A man got out of the car and was struck by another vehicle, according to the CHP.
Erastocruz, behind the wheel of a GMC Yukon, “made an evasive maneuver” because of the man who had been hit, but he veered to the right and slammed into the rear of the Civic.
The unidentified man died at the scene. Doctors pronounced Read dead at a hospital, according to the CHP.
Authorities arrested ErastoCruz. The CHP were still searching for the driver of the other vehicle that initially struck the man who exited the Honda.
ErastoCruz pleaded guilty July 31, 2019, to two misdemeanor DUIs in Orange County, both from late 2018. As a result, he was placed on five years of informal probation.
Under state law, the prior DUI convictions allow prosecutors to upgrade charges from manslaughter to second-degree murder.
– City News Service
