WOODLAND — A woman accused of causing a drug-induced collision that killed a big-rig driver last fall pleaded not guilty Wednesday to felony charges of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence causing injury.
Jacqueline Ochoa Torres, who was taken into custody last weekend following a nearly four-month investigation into the Davis-area collision, at first told Yolo Superior Court Commissioner Kent O’Mara that she was “not sure” whether she could afford a private attorney to represent her.
“I haven’t spoken to my family,” Torres, 26, said from the courtroom holding cell. But after looking at two relatives seated on a nearby courtroom bench and getting no apparent encouragement, she turned back to the commissioner and said, “I need a public defender.”
O’Mara obliged, assigning a court-appointed lawyer to the case and scheduling a Feb. 10 preliminary hearing before Judge Daniel Maguire. He also kept Torres’ bail at $250,000 and revoked her probation in a 2015 identity theft case in which she pleaded no contest last May.
Yolo County court records indicate Torres also has several prior traffic-related infractions.
In her current case, she is accused of causing the fatal Oct. 2 collision while driving under the influence of drugs. California Highway Patrol officers say she was traveling westbound on Interstate 80 near Mace Boulevard and veered right onto the shoulder to avoid hitting slower-moving traffic ahead.
Her vehicle struck 51-year-old Giuseppe Santuccio of Hillsborough, who had pulled his big-rig to the side of the road and was standing near the rear trailer when Ochoa struck him. He died at the scene.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
