A Los Angeles police sergeant was charged Wednesday with a hit-and-run that killed a 19-year-old man in Tustin.
Carlos Gonzalo Coronel was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol causing bodily injury and a fatal hit and run, both felonies, with a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury on the victim, according to the criminal complaint.
Coronel is accused of killing 19-year-old Imanol Salvador Gonzalez of Santa Ana on Feb. 1.
Coronel pleaded no contest Feb. 4 to a probation violation stemming from a drunken driving conviction. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail for the probation violation and given credit for four days behind bars, according to court records.
Coronel was arrested in February on suspicion of hitting Gonzalez just before 4 a.m. Feb. 1 near Nisson Road and Del Amo Avenue, according to Tustin police.
When officers responded to a “person down in the roadway” call, they saw the victim and debris from a car indicating a hit-and-run, police said.
Investigators later determined the suspect vehicle was a black 2021 Chevrolet Silverado crew cab pickup truck, police said. The registered owner of the vehicle was Coronel, and he was subsequently arrested, according to police.
Coronel appeared in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana in February on the probation violation stemming from a DUI in 2011, according to court records. Coronel pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs on Sept. 24, 2011.
According to court records, Coronel was originally sentenced to 129 hours of community service but failed to complete them, and his probation was revoked Dec. 26, 2012.
Coronel had been out for a night of drinking with his brother-in-law on Feb. 1, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Coronel, who was driving to his girlfriend’s home, did not stop after hitting the victim, prosecutors alleged. Prosecutors also accused Coronel of telling his girlfriend when she was driving him back home to avoid Nisson Road, and then searching online for reports of a fatal hit and run in Tustin.
Prosecutors said Coronel also drove by the crime scene as officers investigated the death.
Coronel is scheduled to be arraigned June 27 in the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.