WOODLAND — Pacifico Sanpedro says he’s no stranger to Highway 16, having driven the rural stretch of Yolo County roadway several dozen times a year to try his luck at the blackjack tables at Cache Creek Casino in Brooks.
A trip in late July 2013 started out uneventfully, the 73-year-old Hayward man told a Yolo Superior Court jury in his vehicular manslaughter trial Wednesday. He recalled stopping at a roadside produce stand to buy corn for his wife, then proceeded to the casino, where he spent roughly 11 hours gambling, eating and people-watching.
He started for home at about 2:30 a.m. on July 28, reminding himself as he drove eastbound toward the intersection of Highway 16 and County Road 89 in Madison not to forget the six ears of corn sitting in the trunk of his car.
“I just felt the sudden impact,” Sanpedro, his voice wavering with emotion at times, said under questioning from his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Amber Poston. “I said — and I will never forget this until I die — ‘my God, what happened?’ ”
Stunned, he said, he didn’t immediately realize his Infiniti had rear-ended a disabled Nissan Maxima being hitched to a tow truck along the highway’s south shoulder, pinning tow-truck driver Christopher Gladden between the Nissan and his rig.
Gladden, 24, died 18 days later of major internal injuries.
“I didn’t see the lights,” Sanpedro said, referring to the emergency lights flashing atop Gladden’s tow truck that clear summer night. Up ahead, a red traffic light flashed over Madison’s main intersection, “and that’s what I saw. Why I did not see the blinking lights of the tow truck, I cannot say.”
Sanpedro’s turn on the witness stand marked the end of testimony in the weeklong trial. Attorneys were scheduled to deliver closing arguments this morning, after which jurors would deliberate whether to convict Sanpedro of the misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge.
Prosecutors have alleged that Sanpedro, who was not under the influence and insists he was neither drowsy nor distracted, demonstrated negligence by violating California’s maximum and basic speed laws, traveling 55 to 60 mph in a 45-mph zone — too fast to react prior to the impact and show due care to others on the road.
But in his testimony Wednesday, Sanpedro said the 55 to 60 mph speed estimate he gave officers at the crash scene shouldn’t be trusted because he was still “dazed” from the collision.
“It was unfair of the officers to ask me that question. I was just in an accident,” he said, noting that he’d never received a ticket or been in an accident prior to that night. “It has always been my habit, I drive within the speed limit, and safely.”
The defense contends Sanpedro was traveling below the speed limit at the time of the crash, calling a traffic collision reconstruction expert who put the defendant’s top possible speed at 42.55 mph, based upon his belief that the impact failed to push Gladden’s tow truck forward.
Prosecutors disagree, saying the tow truck actually lurched forward about 10 feet when Sanpedro hit the Nissan, which was attached to the rig’s wheel lift.
Another issue at trial has been Gladden’s “presumptive positive” test for amphetamines while receiving treatment at the UC Davis Medical Center. While the defense says it raises questions about Gladden’s judgment on the night of the crash, prosecutors noted that Gladden was taking medications that may have accounted for the positive screen.
Under cross-examination by Deputy District Attorney Barry Shapiro, Sanpedro recalled waking up sometime between 8 and 10 a.m. the day before the crash, arriving at the casino mid-afternoon. He denied being fatigued when he left for home some 11 hours later.
After the crash, Sanpedro returned to the casino to catch a bus back to Hayward, but was soon taken by ambulance to a Woodland hospital when he began suffering chest pains he believes were caused by the crash. Upon being discharged, he returned to the casino a second time, gambling until it was time to board the bus.
“What was I to do?” he told Shapiro. “Whatever I had left I gambled it away.”
Sanpedro said he arrived home at about 7:30 p.m., having not slept since the morning before. It wasn’t until about a month later that he learned from his auto insurance agent that Gladden had passed away.
“It was the worst news that I received,” Sanpedro said, wiping his eyes with a handkerchief. “I will take to my grave that I was part of an accident where a person died.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene