A motorist who ran a red light in Coachella while driving with a blood-alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit, causing the death of a woman in another car, pleaded guilty Wednesday to DUI gross vehicular manslaughter and was immediately sentenced to six years in state prison.
Cristian Hernandez Torres, 25, of Coachella, had a .31 blood-alcohol level — the legal limit is .08 — at the time of the Aug. 6 crash at the intersection of state Route 86 and Avenue 50, according to authorities.
He ran a red light at 12:43 a.m. and struck Terry Kaul’s Honda Element within the intersection, said sheriff’s Sgt. David Smith.
Kaul, 64, of San Diego, was initially taken to John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio, then airlifted to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, where she died the following afternoon.
Hernandez Torres was found inside his vehicle, unconscious but uninjured, court papers show.
–City News Service