Woman suspected of deadly DUI crash in court
A Salinas woman, accused of killing a man in a wrong way DUI crash, was in court on Tuesday.
The California Highway Patrol said Zayra Iglesias, 21, was allegedly under the influence, driving a Chevrolet Trailblazer on the wrong side of Highway 101, south of Airport Boulevard, when she crashed in a sedan carrying three people on June 10.
One of the passengers, 19 year old Eduardo Madrid died at the scene, while the two others were brought to the hospital for their injuries.
Madrid’s mother was in court on Tuesday, telling our Spanish language partner, Telemundo 23, she wants Iglesias to pay for her crimes.
“What I’m asking in my son’s case is for justice to be done,” said Guadalupe Jimenez. “He was only a 19 year old, and it’s not fair that he lost his life due to a woman that was under the influence.”
Tuesday’s hearing was to allow attorneys to set a date for a preliminary hearing, where a judge will decide if the evidence supports the charges and the case can go to trial. The preliminary hearing was set for September 27, but attorneys will be back in court several days beforehand. Sometimes a prelim is waived, or a plea deal is worked out.
A sentence can range from nothing to years.
“She’s charged with vehicular manslaughter, along with driving under the influence causing injury and multiple great bodily injury enhancements,” said Deputy District Attorney Meredith Sillman. “She’s looking at a maximum term of 16 years, 8 months.”
While her defense attorney said Iglesias is a model citizen who made a mistake.
“As catastrophic of a mistake as it was, and I’m not trying to minimize that, again it was a mistake, it was an accident,” said Brian Worthington. “This wasn’t her targeting an individual, this wasn’t a pattern of behavior, so, I don’t know what type of sentence we are looking at ultimately. She is certainly eligible to be placed on felony probation, she is eligible to receive a suspended sentence.”
Iglesias appeared in court in a wheelchair, as she still recovers from her injuries. Her bail has been set at more than $500,000.
