A Los Angeles police sergeant fatally struck a 19-year-old pedestrian whereas driving drunk, then didn’t cease or name the police, Orange County prosecutors say.
Carlos Gonzalo Coronel, 40, is now dealing with felony costs for DUI inflicting nice bodily harm and hit-and-run inflicting loss of life, based on the Orange County district lawyer’s workplace.
The crash killed Imanol Salvador Gonzalez, who prosecutors stated was strolling on the street within the early hours of Feb. 1, when he was hit after which left to “die on the street.”
Coronel “is accused of not stopping his truck to see what he hit,” prosecutors wrote in an announcement. “He didn’t name 911. Two individuals who had been on their method residence from work that morning discovered Gonzalez’ physique mendacity in the course of Nisson Street.”
Coronel, a Buena Park resident, was beforehand convicted of DUI in 2011, pleading no contest to DUI for alcohol or medicine, based on court docket data.
Within the hours after he’s accused of fatally hitting Gonzalez together with his pickup truck, Coronel drove to his girlfriend’s residence, prosecutors stated. When she drove him residence the subsequent day, he allegedly advised her to take a route that prevented the placement of the hit-and-run. That very same day, is he’s additionally accused of looking out on-line to see if a deadly hit-and-run had been reported within the space, and of driving by the Tustin Police Division’s crime scene investigating the hit-and-run.
“Our regulation enforcement officers are entrusted with the best degree of public belief, and it’s unconscionable that an officer who swore an oath to guard and serve would depart a person to die on the street after hitting him whereas driving inebriated,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer wrote in an announcement. “Imanol was liked by his household, and he didn’t need to have his story finish mendacity in the course of a darkish Tustin road alone whereas the police officer who hit him drove away.”
It wasn’t instantly clear if Coronel was nonetheless employed as an LAPD officer. LAPD didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In accordance with Orange County Superior Court docket data, Coronel was sentenced to 3 years probation, 80 hours of group service and an alcohol program in 2011 after pleading no contest to DUI. After his arrest within the deadly hit-and-run in February, that case was reopened for a probation violation. It seems he was then sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Coronel faces a most sentence of six years and eight months if convicted on all counts, prosecutors stated.
