WOODLAND — In sentencing the man whose epilepsy caused a fatal collision in Davis last year, the judge let it be known he wasn’t punishing Armando Arias Gonzalez Jr. for his medical condition.
“It was your decision to drive when you knew what your medical condition was,” Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson said during Friday’s hearing, noting that Gonzalez already had experienced four prior crashes in which seizures were to blame.
The fifth occurred on Feb. 1, 2014, when Gonzalez, driving home from work on East Covell Boulevard, suffered a seizure that caused his vehicle to rear-end Ruth “Darlene” Morales’ car at high speed and send it crashing into a metal pole and tree, fatally injuring the Vacaville woman who had turned 85 just the day before.
Richardson said while he understands Gonzalez felt he needed to drive in order to work and support his family, “it wasn’t fair to anyone that was out on the roadway. … It was like playing Russian roulette.”
With that, Richardson sentenced Gonzalez, 41, to 18 years and eight months to life in state prison — 15 to life for the second-degree murder conviction reached by jurors in April following a weeklong trial, plus three years and eight months for guilty verdicts on two counts of perjury.
Moments earlier, Gonzalez spoke out for the first time since his arrest, apologizing to members of Morales’ family who were in the courtroom.
“I am very sorry for all of this. I didn’t want any of this to happen,” he said through a Spanish language interpreter. “I’m asking you with all my heart if you will forgive me. I’m very sorry. That’s all.”
The emotional hearing began with a slideshow prepared by Morales’ family, set to classic love songs as pictures told the story of Darlene Morales’ longtime marriage to her husband Rudy, during which they welcomed children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Darlene Morales, who had placed her husband in a local skilled-nursing facility just three days before the crash due to his advanced dementia, had vowed to travel to Davis every day to be by his side. He quickly deteriorated after her visits suddenly stopped and died about two months later.
“Our family wants you to know the life of the person you took,” the couple’s son Bob Morales said directly to Gonzalez, who was seated among other inmates in the courtroom jury box. “Your complete disregard for anybody but yourself is why we are all here today. … I ask you to watch the video — that’s the very least you could do for our family.”
Gonzalez did as requested, but bowed his head and hunched his shoulders when his wife, Isabel Levario, stood up to address the court.
Holding the couple’s toddler son, who was born shortly after the fatal crash while Gonzalez was in Yolo County Jail custody, Levario begged Richardson for leniency, saying it will be years before her family has photos like the ones in the Morales slideshow.
“My husband had no choice — he suffers from a medical condition. He’s not a criminal. Now, a 14-month old child will pay the price as well,” she said, weeping. “Please don’t correct a bad with another bad by separating our family.”
The Gonzalez case was only the second of its kind to be prosecuted in California in which a person’s pre-existing medical condition served as the basis for a second-degree murder charge.
It’s more commonly seen in drunken-driving fatality cases in which the defendant has prior DUI convictions, and thus likely underwent alcohol education programs highlighting the dangers of driving under the influence, yet continued to do so.
In this case, prosecutors argued that Gonzalez’s four prior crashes, which primarily caused property damage but also broke both of his legs on one occasion, should have alerted him that he posed a public safety risk, despite his efforts to control his seizures with medication.
In addition to second-degree murder, the jury that heard the case convicted Gonzalez of gross vehicular manslaughter and two counts of perjury, which prosecutors said stemmed from his efforts to conceal or minimize his condition on DMV paperwork in order to keep his driver’s license.
Jurors acquitted Gonzalez of hit-and-run charges.
Defense attorney Clemente Jimenez sought to limit Gonzalez’s prison sentence to 15 years to life, which he said reflects his client’s lack of a criminal history and is “more than enough to address the issues” that were raised during the trial.
“Mr. Gonzalez is never going to drive again. The DMV will see to that,” Jimenez said.
But Deputy District Attorney Amanda Zambor, the case’s lead prosecutor, said the perjury convictions deserved punishment as well.
“This was not the first time the defendant had lied to the DMV in order to get his license,” Zambor said, noting that the investigation revealed several additional instances of perjury but an expired statute of limitations prevented her from filing charges.
As for Gonzalez’s personal losses, “I don’t think it can go unnoticed that the victim’s family, too, are left without their family members,” Zambor said. Unlike Gonzalez’s relatives, “they can’t go visit them.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene