Ex-LAPD Officer Pleads Guilty to Fatal DUI; Sentenced 15 Years

A now-former Los Angeles Police Department officer who pleaded guilty to murder and DUI charges stemming from a high-speed, off-duty crash that killed three people on the San Gabriel River (605) Freeway in Santa Fe Springs was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in state prison.

Edgar Verduzco, now 34, apologized to the victims’ family members, “I know there are no words that can truly make this right.”

The defendant said he caused a “terrible accident” that “took the lives of an innocent family.”

“I promise I will always keep their memory alive,” the former officer said.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba said she sincerely believed Verduzco’s statement that he would have traded his life for those of UC Riverside student Oscar Davila, 19, and his parents, Mario Davila, 60, and Maribel Davila, 52, if he could have. She said she was confident the defendant will be a “productive citizen” once he finishes his sentence.

Verduzco — who has remained behind bars since he was arrested in 2018 in connection with the charges — pleaded guilty April 11 to three counts of second-degree murder and one count each of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and driving with a 0.08 percent blood alcohol content causing injury in connection with the Sept. 26, 2017, crash.

Verduzco was speeding in his 2016 Chevrolet Camaro in a carpool lane on the freeway when the vehicle smashed into a 2014 Nissan containing the Davilas and then into a 2010 Toyota Scion, authorities said shortly after the crash.

The vehicle containing the Davila family struck a center divider and burst into flames, while the occupants in the other vehicle suffered minor injuries, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

David Davila, whose parents and brother were killed in the crash, told the judge that they were driving to pick him up from an interview for medical school.

Mario Davila’s daughter, Grecia Cowser, told the former officer that he had “caused a tremendous amount of pain within our family.”

She said she hoped he would share his story and “our story” and that he would move forward in a positive way.

Other family members said they were grateful that Verduzco had accepted responsibility for his actions and said they have forgiven him.

Meanwhile, one of Verduzco’s cousins called what happened “horrible and tragic,” adding that “Edgar is not a bad person.”

At a 2019 hearing in which Verduzco was ordered to stand trial, a California Highway Patrol officer testified that he used data from the defendant’s Camaro to determine that the vehicle began braking within one second of the collision with the Nissan and that it was traveling at an estimated 151 mph at the time of the crash.

A driver who was on the freeway that night, Javier Omar Quintanilla, choked back tears at the hearing as he recalled seeing the Camaro at a “speed I’ve never seen before” through his rear-view mirror and saying to himself that the driver was going to kill himself or someone else.

Quintanilla said he didn’t see or hear the collision, but subsequently came upon the wreck and parked to try to help the crash victims before the Nissan caught fire. He said that he smelled alcohol on Verduzco’s breath following the crash.

Berly Alvarado, who was in the Scion with her 1-year-old son, said she panicked and screamed after the collision, which sent her car spinning. She said her son, who was in a car seat, suffered cuts, but she called the injury she suffered to her wrist nothing “compared to what was happening to the other people.”

The woman said that she saw Verduzco approach the Nissan after he managed to get out of his damaged Camaro, but that he had to retreat toward his own car after the Nissan burst into flames.

California Highway Patrol Officer Gersain Chavez described a “pretty chaotic” crash scene, in which three bodies were found inside the Nissan, which had fully burned. The CHP officer said he smelled the odor of alcohol emitting from Verduzco, who informed him that he was an off-duty LAPD officer and denied having consumed alcohol that evening.

Subsequent blood testing done at a hospital showed Verduzco’s blood alcohol content to be 0.13%, according to a stipulation by attorneys from both sides. Chavez testified that a preliminary alcohol screening that was completed by Verduzco before he was taken to the hospital registered at 0.12%.

It is illegal under state law to drive with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or above.

The CHP officer said Verduzco broke down after being told that three people had died as a result of the collision.

Three of Verduzco’s training officers from the LAPD testified that he was with them when DUI arrests were made, and that the police union offers Uber rides twice a year for up to $40 so officers don’t drink and drive.

CHP Officer Emmanuel DaSilva, who was assigned to conduct a criminal investigation after the crash, testified that he found an Instagram account that he believed belonged to Verduzco which featured an Instagram “story” that included an animated man and a car in which the airbag deployed that was superimposed on a bar with the hashtag “dontdrinkanddrive” that had been posted just under four hours before the deadly collision.

Another Instagram “story” allowed him to determine the bar in Whittier where the video was filmed, according to DaSilva.

An unidentified female companion who was with Verduzco at the bar used a credit card belonging to the defendant to spend nearly $73 at that bar in three separate transactions in just over three hours, according to the CHP officer.

The crash and the ensuing investigation resulted in the southbound lanes of the freeway in the area being closed for nearly six hours.

According to a GoFundMe page created on the family’s behalf, the Davilas were “members of Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine Church, volunteers of the Riverside community, supporters of the arts and all three of them had positive influences on those around them.”

Verduzco, who was identified by the District Attorney’s Office as a Santa Ana resident, was initially arrested by the California Highway Patrol shortly after the crash and then released two days later while CHP officials awaited the results of lab tests, authorities said. He was arrested again by the CHP in April 2018 in Long Beach.

Verduzco was subsequently “separated from service with the department” on July 21, 2018, according to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Media Relations Section.

In a statement released shortly after the sentencing, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said, “Mr. Verduzco knew the risks of driving under the influence, but his decision was fueled by recklessness and careless disregard for others. The law applies equally to all — especially to those who are supposed to enforce it. This is another reminder that driving after consuming alcohol is not a mistake — it is a choice — that can have devastating consequences. And for the Davila family, that one choice has left their loved ones with a profound grief from which they will never recover.”