Last Updated on January 5, 2020 by CCAR Staff
The Rancho Cucamonga woman who killed an Eastvale resident in a 2018 traffic collision will be sentenced Monday, Jan. 6, in Riverside after acknowledging that she was driving under the influence before the crash.
Grace Christine Whitman, 20, made a plea to the court on Nov. 14 and signed a document that said she was pleading no contest to gross vehicular manslaughter while under the influence and driving while under the influence of drugs, Riverside County Superior Court records show. The plea document said Whitman could be sentenced to a maximum of 11 years and eight months in prison but that the Riverside County Superior Court judge would impose a term of seven years and eight months.
Whitman has been out of custody since being booked into jail the day after the crash.
Whitman was driving a Subaru Impreza west on Schleisman Road just before 5 p.m. on June 4, 2018, when she ran a red light at Scholar Way and struck the Toyota Corolla driven by Cynthia Pacheco, 28, who was southbound on Scholar Way, a declaration written to obtain an arrest warrant said. Pacheco’s 5-year-old son suffered a head injury. Pacheco died the next day.
A sheriff’s deputy said she found Whitman seated on a curb. Whitman told her that she had been drinking alcohol in the morning and afternoon, the declaration said. A breath test showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.136 percent, and a blood test revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.142. A driver is presumed intoxicated at 0.08 percent.
Pacheco was described by family members as a dedicated fitness instructor, motivational speaker and community volunteer who had a love for worship. She was en route to a precinct to open a polling station, said her sister, Christine Gutierrez.
Pacheco’s father, Adolfo, in a recent email to The Press-Enterprise, said: “Our hope is that this ugly tragedy ends with some level of closure for our family and a restored faith in our judicial system. It’s been a long and difficult court process, but I am confident that the courts will restore my faith that justice will be served.”
