Last Updated on February 9, 2022 by CCAR Staff
A 35-year-old man who killed a bicyclist in a 2019 hit-and-run collision in Riverside and critically injured a woman 21 months later in another hit-and-run in Menifee was sentenced to 31 years in prison on Monday, Feb. 7, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said.
In between those crimes, Steven Allen Watson Jr. of Menifee served time for four vehicle thefts, Superior Court records show.
In all, Watson was convicted of 17 felonies and three misdemeanors — mostly related to auto theft and illegal drugs — after making a plea to the judge at the Riverside Hall of Justice. The DA’s Office did not oppose that plea. Watson faced 34 years in prison and must serve 85% of the 31 years, said John Hall, a DA’s spokesman.
Watson was in custody for the Dec. 31, 2020 crash on the 215 Freeway that left Elizabeth Roberts, 56, walking with a cane, when he was charged with hit-and-run causing injury or death in the March 23, 2019 collision on Victoria Avenue that killed Riverside resident Brian Sabel, 52.
Roberts and Sabel’s widow, Jeannine, said in interviews Tuesday that they were relieved that the legal cases had concluded.
“We should feel lucky that he is going to go away to prison for a number of years,” Sabel said.
Said Roberts: “It was mindboggling how many crimes he committed the past 10 years and did hardly any jail time. He’s got a long list of damages he’s done to people.”
Investigators in both hit-and-runs initially had few clues to go on.
There did not appear to be any witnesses to the death of Sabel, who enjoyed riding mountain and street bikes and who worked for 27 years at Vista Paint, where he was a top salesperson.
But detectives viewing a home’s surveillance video spotted what turned out to be a U-Haul pickup that they traced to Watson. And informants implicated Watson, whom they knew as “Woody” — a person known to fall asleep behind the wheel.
Jeannine Sabel praised Detective Zach Fishell, Deputy District Attorney Melanie Deutsch and victims services advocate Carlos Romo for their work.
“It took a year and eight months to make this arrest so it would stick, so I’m thankful,” Sabel said.
Watson was fleeing police when he smashed a stolen pickup into Roberts’ LabCorp delivery van about 2:40 a.m. The pickup crashed through a fence and, traveling south, into the northbound 215 lanes. Watson and a passenger abandoned the pickup, which rolled about 75 feet before the collision.
Investigators found a cell phone that had a Facebook profile for “Woodrow Wilson.” But they connected Watson to the phone because a relative had posted this greeting: “Happy Birthday crazy … bro, I love you.”
Roberts, a Lake Elsinore resident, said she doesn’t remember the crash. Her ankles, fingers and back were broken. Some fingers had to be stitched back together. Roberts’ ribs broke and punctured her lungs. She has not returned to work but is at least up and walking around.
“I’m alive. Let’s put it that way,” Roberts said.
Sabel, 59, said she misses the bike rides she and daughter Paola, now 22, used to take with her husband of 23 years.
“He was my soulmate, and it’s so hard for this to have happened to him,” Sabel said.
