A passenger who was killed when a car crashed into a tree in Paramount was identified Friday as a 23-year-old Paramount woman, and the driver remained jailed in lieu of $2.1 million bail.
Yadira Alvarez died at the scene of the crash, which occurred about 3 a.m. Thursday at Somerset Boulevard and Texaco Avenue, coroner‘s Assistant Chief Ed Winter said.
The driver, 25-year-old Giovanni Pena, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and is due in court in Compton on Monday, sheriff’s officials said.
Alvarez was Pena’s longtime girlfriend, according to reports.
He was driving a 2013 Chevrolet Camaro east on Somerset Boulevard at a high rate of speed when he lost control of the car, which slammed into a tree, said sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Jernigan of the Lakewood Station.
There was no immediate word on whether drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash.
–City News Service