Watsonville spinach farm owner charged with involuntary manslaughter in worker’s death

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV)- The owner of a Watsonville-based spinach farming company has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after a worker was killed on the job back in 2020.

The Santa Clara County Grand Jury returned an indictment against Willoughby Farms, and its owner, for allegedly causing the death of Carlos Jimenez Cruz. 

Willoughby Farms, Inc. President David Willoughby, 50, was arraigned on Tuesday on felony charges said the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office. "The corporation, along with an affiliated LLC, will be arraigned this afternoon on the felony charges," said the district attorney's office.

Prosecutors said the charges are from an incident on October 15, 2020, where Cruz was killed while servicing a 16,000-pound spinach harvester. Cruz was strangled to death when the hood of his clothing was caught in a spinning shaft on the machine.

"Employers have a basic responsibility to make sure their workers are safe," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. "It is a tragedy and a crime when a person doing their job is injured or killed because an employer fails to pay attention to safety."

Willoughby faces a maximum of four years in prison on the involuntary manslaughter charge. Willoughby Farms faces millions of dollars in fines for three Labor Code violations, said the district attorney's office