A twice-convicted drunken driver was charged Tuesday with murder for what authorities called an alcohol-fueled crash that killed two people on the Santa Ana (5) Freeway in Irvine.
Jorge ErastoCruz, 33, of Lake Forest, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and a count of DUI with a blood-alcohol level at 0.08% or higher causing injury, all felonies. He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended or revoked license due to DUI.
ErastoCruz is on probation for two DUIs in 2019, according to court records. He was being held on $1 million bail in Orange County Jail, and he was scheduled to be arraigned sometime Tuesday in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana.
The crash occurred about 2:10 a.m. Sunday on the 5 Freeway just north of Yale Avenue in the southbound lanes, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Alice Read, 25, of San Diego, and an unidentified man were killed in the crash, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Todd Hylton.
According to the California Highway Patrol, a 23-year-old San Diego woman was driving a 2016 Honda Civic, which stopped on the right shoulder of the freeway. A man got out of the car and was struck — to an unknown severity — by another vehicle, according to the CHP.
Erastocruz, driving a GMC Yukon, “made an evasive maneuver” because of the man who had been struck in the road, but he veered off the roadway to the right and slammed into the rear of the stopped Honda Civic, the CHP reported.
“As a result of this collision,” Read, who was in the middle rear seat of the Honda, and the unidentified man who got out of the vehicle were killed, the CHP said. The unidentified man was pronounced dead at the scene and Read was later pronounced dead at a hospital, according to the CHP.
ErastoCruz was arrested. CHP officials were still searching for the driver of the other vehicle that initially struck the man who exited the Honda.
ErastoCruz pleaded guilty July 31, 2019, to two misdemeanor DUIs in Orange County. One occurred on Oct. 18, 2018, and the other was Dec. 30, 2018. As a result, he was placed on five years of informal probation.
The prior convictions for DUI allow prosecutors to upgrade any charges from manslaughter to second-degree murder under state law.