Last Updated on June 2, 2021 by C-CAR
A driver was arrested on suspicion of being linked to a weekend crash in West Covina that killed an athlete-scholar who graduated from Glendora High School last year.
Kerry Welsh, 18, of West Covina was going to pick up her younger sister at a birthday party on Saturday night, May 29, a friend said, when she was fatally struck.
The collision happened at a four-way stop at Vine and Hollenbeck avenues around 11:15 p.m., West Covina Lt. Brian Daniels said.
Welsh was driving a silver Honda Accord south on Hollenbeck while the suspect was in a dark-colored Honda Accord heading west on Vine, he said.
“She was in the intersection when the suspect failed to stop at a stop sign,” Daniels said. “He collided into her.”
Welsh died at a hospital early Sunday, May 30, coroner’s spokeswoman Sarah Ardalani said.
Police arrested Gilberto Moralez, 24, on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol and drugs, Daniels said. There was no passenger in the car.
Court records show Moralez, a Pomona resident, has a prior conviction for misdemeanor resisting arrest in Los Angeles County. He pleaded no contest to the charge and was sentenced on July 9, 2015, to three years of probation and 20 days of community labor.
On Wednesday, Moralez remained in custody at West Covina jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Welsh played varsity soccer at Glendora High and had been part of the Legends soccer club. She graduated in 2020 and was lauded as the scholar-athlete of the year. She landed a scholarship at Loyola Marymount University. Friends and coaches said she wanted to be a doctor.
RELATED STORY: Glendora community mourning the death of 18-year-old Kerry Welsh, who wanted to become a doctor
Staff writer Fred Robledo contributed to this report
