WOODLAND — Facing a jury trial next week, the driver in a deadly Woodland collision pleaded guilty to several charges Monday with the hope of avoiding a state prison sentence.
Raymond Contreras, 34, admitted to counts of hit-and-run causing injury or death, conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor and concealing evidence in connection with the Nov. 12, 2015, death of Richard Tafoya, who was struck and killed while walking his dog across Mariposa Street.
Raymond Contreras. Enterprise file photo
Contreras’ girlfriend, Norma Gentry, and her father Roberto Sanchez also may resolve their cases in which they’re accused of attempting to conceal Contreras’ role in the crash. If not, Sanchez goes to trial next week.
“We haven’t had a meeting of the minds yet,” Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Jay Linden said of his negotiations with the pair’s defense attorneys. Both are due back in court Friday.
Contreras, meanwhile, admitted to all of the allegations against him in a court proceeding known as “pleading to the sheet,” which does not involve the cooperation of prosecutors.
Instead, a defendant may go this route if he thinks he can obtain a more favorable sentence than the one offered by the prosecution, which in this case is seeking a state prison term.
Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson initially suggested a sentencing date of Sept. 16, which elicited groans of frustration from the large group of Tafoya’s relatives and friends who have attended each of the defendant’s numerous court hearings since January.
“They keep dragging this out,” one woman commented. “We’re the ones that have to suffer because we lost a loved one.”
After some extended schedule wrangling, Richardson set a revised date of Sept. 6, appeasing the victim’s family while also giving attorneys time to prepare for what is expected to be a contested sentencing hearing.
Authorities said Contreras was at the wheel of Gentry’s Dodge Ram pickup when he hit Tafoya, a 65-year-old lifelong Woodland resident and auto-parts store worker who was walking his pet dog to a nearby park at about 3:30 a.m.
Instead of stopping to aid Tafoya or call police, however, Contreras reportedly sped away. Gentry was a passenger in the truck at the time.
According to testimony offered at the defendants’ preliminary hearing in March, Contreras and Gentry told Sanchez they had damaged the truck by striking a tire. Sanchez, meanwhile, allegedly filed a false insurance claim saying he had been driving the Dodge and had hit a milk crate on the highway.
Their alleged ruse fell apart, however, when police obtained a description of the fleeing truck from a neighbor’s surveillance camera on Mariposa Street and released it to the public. That same day, the owner of a Woodland auto body shop reported that the vehicle had been brought in for repairs.
Broken vehicle parts left behind at the collision scene matched up to the truck’s damaged headlight, said police, who also obtained text messages between Contreras and Gentry referring to the fatal collision.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene