A 29-year-old man was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison on Friday, Aug. 26, for a drunken-driving crash that killed two men in Anaheim two years ago.
For a different case, Jose Guadalupe Salasmaria had been convicted of drunken driving, in April 2012, and warned by a judge that instead of vehicular manslaughter he would face murder if he caused a deadly DUI collision. He had taken Mothers Against Drunk Driving classes.
Still, Salasmaria killed Ruben Cuevas, 30, and George Moreno, 24, and injured Ramon Cuevas in the 2020 crash.
“The defendant in this case disregarded some of the most basic and simple laws and rules that were created to protect everyone, including him,” Deputy District Attorney Brian Orue said in his opening statement of the trial.
On May 23, 2020, Salasmaria was driving a 2013 Mazda CX-9 when, at about 8:20 p.m., he collided with a 2016 Nissan Versa at Olive Street and La Palma Avenue.
Salasmaria ran a “stale red light” while driving east on La Palma, Orue said. Before that, he had run a red light at Lemon Street, Orue said. He was going 68 mph at the time of the collision when the speed limit was 35 mph, Orue said.
Salasmaria said he drank a beer while at work during a lunch break, then after completing work drank tall cans of Budweiser in the parking lot with co-workers, who passed around a marijuana pipe, Orue said.
Police found four empty beer cans in Salasmaria’s car and two unopened beers, Orue said. The Mazda’s lights were off at the time of the collision.
Salasmaria had his blood drawn about an hour after the crash and it showed he had a blood-alcohol level of about 0.30 — almost four times the legal limit of 0.08, Orue said.
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