| For Immediate Release Case # 11HF1164 April 16, 2012 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami
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DRIVER CONVICTED OF KILLING MOTORIST IN CRASH AFTER FAILING TO SLOW OR STOP AND RUNNING SOLID RED LIGHT
SANTA ANA – A driver has been convicted and sentenced for killing another motorist in a crash by failing to slow or stop and running through a solid red light. Jose Javier Fernandez Ramirez, 21, San Clemente, pleaded guilty today to one felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and was sentenced to two years in state prison.
At approximately 11:10 a.m. on Jan. 14, 2011, Ramirez was driving eastbound on Bake Parkway in Lake Forest in a Toyota truck. At the intersection of North Pointe Drive, the defendant drove through a solid red light, which had been red for over five seconds. He failed to slow or stop and crashed into the passenger’s side of a Hyundai driven by 23-year-old Nicole Davenport. The victim was making a legal left turn through the intersection on a green light.
The force of the impact pushed Davenport’s car onto the sidewalk. The victim was transported to Mission Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 12:01 p.m.
The defendant was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash. He was arrested May 4, 2011, by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, who investigated this case.
During the sentencing today, Davenport’s mother and grandmother gave victim impact statements to the court. Her mother Stephanie Davenport said that her children are her soul and she is missing a part of herself without Nicole. Davenport’s grandmother, Ann Duffin, said, “Since her death, Nikki has missed out on her brother’s birthday, Valentine ’s Day, her own and her twin’s birthday, her best friend’s birthday…every holiday…and the list will grow as the years go on. None of us will ever again hear her goofy laugh, or see her brilliant smile, or hear her high heels clicking down the hall. No one knows what she might have done because she never got the chance. No one knows who she might have met, but we all know that everyone she did meet was impacted by her passing.”
Deputy District Attorney Nancy Hayashida of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.
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