A state appeals court panel Tuesday reversed a judge’s order requiring a woman to pay just over $5,800 in funeral and burial expenses in connection with a hit-and-run crash that killed a bicyclist in San Pedro.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed with Anisha Lockhart’s claim that a judge erred in ordering her to pay restitution to the California Victim Compensation Board.
Lockhart was sentenced last year to two years in state prison after pleading no contest to one count of hit-and-run resulting in death or serious injury stemming from the March 4, 2023, death of Oscar Montoya.
The 51-year-old man was struck at about 12:40 a.m. that day while riding north on Pacific Avenue, south of Channel Street, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Montoya died at the scene.
The 2009 Scion XB involved in the crash was located three days after the collision, and Lockhart was arrested five days after the crash, authorities said.
In its six-page ruling in Lockhart’s case, the appellate court panel wrote that “the act of striking the victim with her car was not the criminal offense.”
“Rather, her only actionable criminal conduct was leaving the scene of an injury accident without providing identification or aid. Consequently, her financial liability is limited to the economic losses caused by her flight, not to injuries she caused by striking and killing the victim,” the panel found. “Because there was no evidence or suggestion that defendant’s flight worsened Montoya’s injuries or caused his death, the restitution order must be reversed.”