A young man who drove drunk and crashed a car at high speeds into a lamppost in Coronado, killing one of his passengers, pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and DUI causing injury.
Erwin Mejia Ramos, 21, was arrested last year for the July 29 crash that killed his backseat passenger, 26-year-old Sarai Valentina Olvera, and injured another woman in the car.
The crash happened around 12:30 a.m. in the 1100 block of Orange Avenue, according to police.
At Ramos’ arraignment last year, Deputy District Attorney Amy Colby said Ramos and his passengers traveled from Riverside to San Diego County, where they consumed alcohol at La Jolla Cove before driving to Coronado.
Once there, Colby said Ramos, who was 20 years old at the time of the fatal crash, was driving at speeds of 60 to 80 mph “by his own estimation” in a 25 mph zone.
Olvera was killed “instantly” in the crash, the prosecutor said, while Ramos’ other passenger, a 20-year-old woman in the front passenger seat, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
City News Service contributed to this article.