Southern California

A 23-year-old Long Beach driver who ran over and killed a family of three during an alcohol-fueled crash in Bixby Knolls on Halloween night in 2019 was convicted Tuesday morning of murder.

Jurors deliberated for around two hours before finding Carlo Adrian Navarro guilty of second-degree murder for the deaths of Joseph Awaida, 30, his wife Raihan Dakhil, 32, and their son, 3-year-old Omar Awaida.

That Navarro, then 20, was driving after drinking alcohol and that he caused the deaths of the three family members was not disputed during his Los Angeles Superior Court trial.

Instead, jurors were tasked with deciding whether Navarro committed second-degree murder under an “implied malice” legal theory that he knew driving drunk was dangerous to human life but did it anyway, as argued by prosecutors, or whether he was unaware of the full dangers of drunken driving and his actions constituted lesser counts of voluntary manslaughter, as countered by the defense.

Joseph Awaida, who worked at his father’s auto shop, and Dakhil, a social worker, had spent the night trick-or-treating with their young son and spending time at a relative’s home. The couple and the boy, who was dressed in a Halloween lizard costume, were walking home at the time of the crash.

According to statements later made to police, Navarro had obtained a bottle of Jack Daniels on credit from Green Diamond Liquor and taken several shots of the alcohol before getting into his black Toyota Sequoia to drive to a park to drink with friends.

According to prosecutors, Navarro was traveling at “freeway speeds” of twice the legal limit through a residential neighborhood, blew through two stop signs and then, after failing to negotiate a curve along Country Club Drive near Bixby Road, went over a curb and drove onto a sidewalk, where he struck the three victims from behind.

The parents ended up in the roadway, while the boy ended up underneath a car parked on the opposite side of the street. Bystanders attempted to aid them, but all three died from injuries sustained in the crash.

Navarro remained at the scene of the crash, with his attorney describing him as sitting on a curb and waiting for police. Witnesses, however, described Navarro as slurring his words and appearing unsteady after the crash and believed he was inebriated.

Navarro was later recorded telling officers “I was drunk driving and I realized I had hit someone.” Officers estimated that he had around a 0.16 percent blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash, double the legal limit for driving.

In seeking a second-degree murder conviction, prosecutors pointed to Navarro’s own words to police as proof that he knew driving drunk was dangerous to human life but did it anyway. They also noted that, months earlier, an apparently drunken Navarro was found by police sleeping in his SUV parked in an alley. He later told authorities that he chose to sleep in the vehicle because “I knew that I was too drunk to drive.”

“That should have been his wake-up call, but it wasn’t,” prosecutor Karen Brako told jurors during her closing arguments on Friday.

Navarro’s attorney, Bryan Schroeder, said he understood that jurors could find Navarro guilty of vehicular manslaughter, but denied that his culpability rose to the level of second-degree murder. He described it as “a first-time DUI with horrible consequences.”

The defense attorney told jurors that Navarro didn’t understand the potentially deadly consequences of driving drunk, noting that in one of the recorded conversations with police Navarro told them that “I really didn’t think about hitting someone” when he decided to drive that night.

“A 20-year-old kid out with his friends on Halloween?” Schroeder told jurors during his own closing arguments. “Kids do stupid stuff. For the sake of all our kids, remember that.”

Navarro faces up to 45-years-to-life in prison when he returns to court for sentencing on Sept. 15.

 

A San Diego Police Department motor sergeant was seriously injured on Saturday night after he apparently lost control of his police motorcycle and was struck by another vehicle on a Temecula roadway.

The officer, a Temecula resident, was traveling northbound on Rainbow Canyon Road around 8:30 p.m. when he apparently lost control on a right-hand curve in the roadway just north of Rainbow Valley Boulevard, according to a CHP report released on Sunday.

The officer slid off the motorcycle and crossed the double yellow lines directly into the path of oncoming traffic, according to the CHP.

A man driving a pickup truck on southbound Rainbow Canyon Road “attempted evasive action,” but was unable to avoid hitting the officer and the motorcycle, according to the CHP report.

The officer was taken to a hospital with what authorities described as major injuries.

CHP officers were looking into what caused the officer to lose control of his motorcycle.

A driver was arrested early Sunday morning after law enforcement said he hit a man crossing Baseline Street in Highland hours before, killing him.

Kyle Michael Cornwell VI, 24, of Highland, was arrested at his home shortly after the crash that killed a 56-year-old man, who was found lying in the middle of Baseline near McKinley Avenue just past 10 p.m.

Deputies said witnesses at the crash scene saw a white Dodge Ram hit the man, then flee the area, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. The depuites also found evidence at the scene that helped them identify the Dodge. Officials did not say what the evidence was.

When they went to the home associated with the owner of the Dodge, they found Cornwell and arrested him.

Cornwell was booked on suspicion of a hit and run that caused a death. He has not been charged yet; Cornwell is expected to appear in San Bernardino Superior Court on Wednesday. He is being held on $50,000 bail.

The San Bernardino County coroner’s office has not yet identified the man who was killed.

The driver of a Lexus racing another Lexus in Jurupa Valley late Saturday night died after losing control and plowing head-on into an oncoming Chevy truck, with both vehicles erupting in flames, authorities said.

Law enforcement said both Lexus drivers were racing on a remote section of Sierra Highway, headed south from Fontana into Jurupa Valley approaching the Oak Quarry Golf Club, at around 10 p.m. on Saturday.

Both were driving fast when they came to a curve in the road. The driver of the 2001 Lexus failed to get around the curve and crossed into the opposite lane.

That’s when the Lexus hit a 2017 Chevy Silverado, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. The crash left both drivers trapped in their vehicles as they caught fire.

Firefighters who got there a few minutes later fought both vehicle fires. The Chevy driver was rescued and taken to a hospital with burns and other injuries from the crash.

The firefighters could not get to the Lexus driver. Once they put out the flames, they found the driver and he was declared dead at the scene.

The driver of the other Lexus, a 2019 model, stayed at the scene and was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter. That driver has not been identified.

The coroner has not yet identified the Lexus driver who died.

A man was fatally injured early Sunday, July 3 in a hit-and-run crash in Pomona, authorities said.

The crash was reported at 2:15 a.m. on Mission Boulevard around Towne Avenue, said Los Angeles County Fire Department Dispatch Supervisor Michael Stafford.

Officers dispatched to the scene at 2:14 a.m. located a man suffering from severe injuries, the Pomona Police Department reported.

Paramedics rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police had no description of the suspect vehicle or the suspect.

Pomona police urged anyone with information regarding the crash to call them at 909-620-2048 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.

 

One person was killed in a multi-car collision on the 215 Freeway near Highgrove early Saturday morning.

Officers were called just before 6 a.m. to the southbound lanes of the freeway, south of La Cadena Drive, where three cars had collided, according to California Highway Patrol Sgt. Tirrell Hayes. The driver of one sedan was pronounced dead at the scene.

What led to the crash was not immediately clear.

The victim, identified only as a woman, was not publicly identified, pending family notification.

Drugs or alcohol were not believed to be contributing factors, according to investigators. It was not known if any occupants of the other two cars were injured.

As a boy, Marine Corps pilot Capt. Michael Wolff was thrilled by movies such as “Star Wars” and “Top Gun.”

Being a military pilot would be a “cool job,” he thought, and dreamed of flying and one day experiencing his own exhilarating action, he said.

And he has in his eight-year flying career, but it was during a routine training flight over the Salton Sea on Sept. 29, 2020, when he ended up in an aerial life-and-death struggle not many movie scripts could replicate.

For landing his KC-130J Super Hercules and its crew safely after it was struck by an F-35B Lightning II during that aerial refueling exercise, Wolff, 32, was recently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The award is the Pentagon’s highest for “extraordinary aerial achievement” and an aviator’s second-highest medal for bravery.

Wolff’s co-pilot, Maj. Cory Jones received the same award and the plane’s crew received other recognitions of aviation achievement. They are part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing headquartered at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Jones is now stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

The midair collision in the skies near Ocotillo Wells, just west of the Anza-Borego State Park, was witnessed by people on the ground who reported a booming crash and a large fireball. The $100 million fighter jet was lost, but its pilot ejected and had only minor injuries.

“Very violent air crash”

Wolff, with his crew of seven aboard the Super Hercules known as Raider 50, had two missions during the training, refuel two F/A-18 Hornet fighters and two F-35Bs, which are the Marines’ newest and most sophisticated fighter jets.

A support plane with a similar wingspan to a 737, but shorter and stubbier, the Super Hercules was flying at 17,000 feet, prepared to hook up with the aircraft. The Marines use the probe-and-drogue system, which puts the burden on the pilot to get their plane’s refueling probe into a “basket” surrounding the fuel connection with the refueling plane.

“The receiver comes to us,” Wolff said. “There’s a 90-foot hose with a basket behind us and they plug into our basket with their hose. Both were in formation to receive.”

 

After one F-35B tanked up, something happened that caused the jet to strike the Super Hercules. While the investigation is complete, its findings have not been made public.

“He hit us beneath the right wing,” Wolff said. “It took off engine three and four and a propeller, and it also hit the fuselage, including where the landing gear is located.”

An 800-gallon external tank that separated from the Super Hercules on impact exploded in the air. While Wolff didn’t see that happen, he got a report over the radio from one of his crew, who had been in the window watching as the F-35B got closer and closer.

“In 1.2 seconds, there was a very violent crash,” Wolff said. “For a few seconds, I thought, ‘This is probably it.’ It felt like a wing had come off.”

The impact knocked the pilots’ headsets off.

“Everything that wasn’t strapped down was flying around and it pushed us hard against our restraints,” Wolff said. “A second later I reached for the flight control and they were still working. That was pretty incredible.”

Shrieking alarms, flashing lights

Instantly, Wolff and his crew, despite the initial shock and chaos, fell back on their training fundamentals: “Aviate, Navigate and Communicate,” Wolff said.

In his eight years in the cockpit, Wolff has encountered other emergencies. He’s also trained extensively in flight simulators on what to do in a bird-strike situation and other possible emergency scenarios.  But none of that training included multiple crises at one time, he said.

With warning lights flashing in the cockpit, shrieking alarms and outside air rushing into the hole torn into the fuselage, Wolff said he and his crew locked into what they’ve been taught as the plane began a dramatic descent.

“We had to maintain airspeed, so the plane was controllable,” he said. “And, figure out where and in what configuration to land.”

Wolff made a plan with his crew and communicated his intentions to traffic control.

In audio obtained from traffic controllers, Wolff’s voice appears calm: “L.A. Center! L.A. Center! This is Raider 5-0 declaring an in-flight emergency.

“We have two engines out and we are leaking fuel and might be on fire. In an emergency descent at this time. Raider 5-0,” he proceed to layout for the controllers on the ground.

With partial control of the aircraft, they went into a controlled descent, he said, using the power provided by the remaining operating motors.

“We were in a descending left turn aiming toward Thermal due to the impact and the previous flight plan,” Wolff said.

Thermal is a small community southeast of Palm Springs with a small airstrip.

When the plane landed, it hit a wet cauliflower field that Wolff said provided a “soft landing” on which the plane slid for 300 to 400 yards before coming to a stop.

As his crew exited the plan, Wolff breathed a sigh of relief, he said. “I’m in shock about what happened and in shock that we all walked off the plane.”

No procedure for this emergency

Retired Marine Col. Charlie Quilter, a decorated fighter pilot who flew in Vietnam, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, understands flying. For decades, the Laguna Beach resident flew the F-4 Phantom and has focused on military history since his retirement.

Quilter said Marine aviators are in a class of their own and, though he said there is no set procedure that Wolff could have relied on to safely bring the crippled plane down, he’s not surprised that Wolff’s training gave him a foundation for remaining calm and in control.

There is an old axiom in flying that the two most-feared in-flight emergencies are fire and structural failure,” Quilter said. “Here it was the latter, and maybe it was both. Simply keeping the aircraft upright and preventing it from flipping into a deadly spin was definitely ‘distinguished flying’ in my view, let alone getting it back onto earth in one piece.

“The pilot kept his cool, fell back on his training as a naval aviator and saved his aircraft and all aboard,” Quilter said. “Peacetime awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross are extremely rare, but this is one of the situations where it is appropriate.”

Jamey Federico, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and AH1 Cobra helicopter pilot who is decorated with a Bronze Star and the Air Medal-18 for flying in combat over in Iraq and Afghanistan, agreed that Wolff and his crew demonstrated “extraordinary airmanship.”

After 22 years of active duty and 17 years flying, Federico, who now serves on the Dana Point City Council, said he knows only one pilot who received the Distinguished Flying Cross during that time. It was for flying in combat in Iraq.

“We just don’t give out the Distinguished Flying Cross,” Federico said, adding that Marine Corps is generally conservative when handing out awards and personal decorations.

“This is what we train for and military flying is dangerous business,” he said of the crew’s training that helped make the emergency landing a success.

Now, he said, it will be Wolff and his crew who are role models for other pilots and crews.

“It’s ingrained in the Marine Corps culture that everything we do, the mistakes we make or what we do right, we learn from that,” Federico said. “You can never have enough experience and sometimes you learn by proxy from fellow pilots and air crews. Any time something unique happens, you have to take advantage. So much more when the outcome is positive like this, and you learn what made them successful that day.”

Since the collision, Wolff and his crew have been up in the air again, and Wolff has told his story to every pilot in his squadron.

“This is survivable,” he said is the message he wants other aviators to understand. The airwing will continue to use the midair collision as a case study about “how things can go right.”

Wolff, who commissioned into the Marines in 2013, said while he appreciates the recognition tremendously, he’s more thankful for the emergency’s outcome.

‘”I’m happy to be here and thankful to be flying,” he said. “And, thankful how everything worked out.”

BEAUMONT — A man and a woman were killed in a rollover crash alongside the 10 Freeway in Beaumont that no one witnessed, prompting the California Highway Patrol Monday to ask anyone who might have information to come forward.

Lorenzo Luquin of Moreno Valley and Delmy Lara of Jurupa Valley, both 22, were killed in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday on eastbound Interstate 10 a half-mile east of the Oak Valley Parkway exit, according to the CHP.

Officer Jason Montez told City News Service that the pair were in a 2013 Nissan Sentra that went off of the freeway and overturned down an embankment, ejecting both victims, who were not wearing safety belts.

“We’re not certain of the exact time this occurred,” Montez said. “Two officers were going through the area, just as the sun was starting to come up, and one of them happened to be looking outside when he saw the vehicle.”

That was at about 5:30 a.m.

The lawmen went to investigate and confirmed that Lara and Luquin were deceased.

“The car was cold to the touch, so it had been there a little while,” Montez said.

Riverside County coroner’s officials attempted to estimate the time of the crash. According to them, it was likely at around 1:00 a.m. on Sunday.

The cause was under investigation. According to Montez, alcohol and drugs have not been ruled out as possible factors.

“There were no witnesses, so we would welcome any information someone might have,” Montez said.

The San Gorgonio CHP office can be reached at 951-769-2000. Officer Kevin Simmons is handling the investigation.

A passenger died Sunday, June 26, when a car blew a tire and rolled over off the 10 Freeway in Redlands, the California Highway Patrol said.

Four other people were injured. The dead passenger, and two other passengers who suffered minor injuries, were not wearing seat belts, a CHP news release said. The driver and another passenger, who were wearing seat belts, had moderate injuries, the CHP said.

The crash happened at about 7:50 p.m. in the westbound lanes. As the 2002 Toyota passed the Ford Street off-ramp, the left rear tire blew out. The car veered across the freeway, struck a curb and tumbled down an embankment, landing on the Ford Street on-ramp, the CHP said.

The passenger who died, a 30-year-old man from Mexico, was thrown from the car. A passerby performed CPR on the man, the Redlands Fire Department said. He was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, the CHP said.