Officers with the Riverside Police Department are still conducting a vehicular manslaughter investigation, which began last month.
According to The Riverside Press Enterprise, the case involves a one-car accident, which occurred Friday, June 13th on Bush Avenue. The fatal accident involved a 37-year-old woman and her 69-year-old father. Prior to the accident, the daughter was allegedly under the influence of alcohol and arguing with her father. During the argument, the father was adamantly urging his daughter not to drive.
The woman then got into her 2003 BMW convertible, and backed out of the garage of her family home into the driveway where her father was standing. She continued to back toward the end of the driveway and struck her father with the vehicle, killing him. The father was rushed to the local Riverside Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Authorities were then called to the scene. The daughter was subsequently taken into custody by police on suspicion of gross vehicle manslaughter and DUI. She was reportedly still in custody by late June on a $75,000 cash bond at the Riverside County Adult Detention Center.
On Tuesday, July 15th, a Riverside Police spokesperson told newspaper reporters that investigators were still doing a mechanical inspection of the BMW to find out if the vehicle's brakes were working properly on that day. He also stated that formal charges have not yet been filed against the 37-year old woman.
Legal Definition and Consequences of Vehicular Manslaughter
In California, a charge of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated is a felony offense. A conviction under California law for such charges can carry a sentence of 4, 6 or 10 years in state prison. According to the California Penal Code, this offense constitutes the following:
Gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought and the killing was either the proximate result of the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to a felony, and with gross negligence, or the proximate result of the commission of a lawful act that might produce death, in an unlawful manner, and with gross negligence.(California Penal Code, Section 191.5)
The Importance of Legal Representation
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