A 41-year-old man who had just walked out of a Norwalk jail carjacked an SUV at a gas station and fled with a woman in the passenger seat before dumping the victim and leading police on a chase that ended with a deadly crash in Anaheim, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday, while the defendant’s attorney questioned the victim’s cause of death.
Martin Alvarado is charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping for carjacking, assault with a weapon on a police officer, and leading police on a chase, all felonies, as well as driving without a valid license and two counts of hit and run with property damage, all misdemeanors.
“The reason we’re here today is because of the choices the defendant made,” Deputy District Attorney Mallory Miller said. “He made dangerous and deadly decisions during a pursuit from law enforcement.”
Alvarado, who had just been released from jail on Sept. 23, 2020, started panhandling to get money to take a bus home, and when that failed he eyed a running Toyota CH-R at an Arco gas station at about noon at 10602 Imperial Highway, Miller said.
“He decided to take it,” Miller said. “He didn’t care a woman was in the passenger front seat. He was going to take her too. He got in that running car and left.”
Gidyet Lansang’s husband was in the gas station paying for fuel when the defendant sped off with the couple’s vehicle, Miller said.
“She asked and begged to get out of the car, but he sped off, not allowing her to escape,” Miller said.
In the only “good choice” he made that day, Alvarado stopped about a quarter-mile away to let Lansang out, but not before making threats to blow up the car, Miller said.
“She ran back to the AM/PM where her husband was on the phone with law enforcement,” Miller said.
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy spotted the stolen Toyota at Imperial Highway and Carmenita Road and the pursuit began, Miller said. It was unclear initially if the deputies knew whether the kidnap victim was still in the car or not.
At one point while a deputy was laying down a spike strip, Alvarado swerved out of the way and nearly struck the deputy, Miller alleged.
Alvarado also clipped a car in Buena Park, flashed through several red lights and drove into oncoming traffic before he slammed into a Ford Ranger at Beach Boulevard and Orange Avenue in Anaheim, Miller said.
The prosecutor showed jurors surveillance video of the alleged car theft at the gas station as well as footage of the pursuit from Anaheim’s police helicopter.
The Ranger’s driver, 54-year-old Manuel Perales, was trapped in the vehicle and first responders had to cut him out, Miller said.
“It’s sort of a miracle Mr. Perales was not killed instantly,” Miller said. “Both cars were obliterated.”
Alvarado and Perales were rushed to nearby hospitals, the prosecutor said.
Perales was diagnosed with fractured ribs and bruising to the liver and spleen, but “nothing significant to warrant surgery,” Miller said. Perales, however, was a chronic alcoholic and that “is a contributing factor” to his death, Miller said.
“But for that significant collision, Mr. Perales would still be alive,” Miller said.
Alvarado faces a second-degree murder charge instead of manslaughter because he had a prior conviction for driving under the influence in November 2010 and was given an advisement that if he was involved in a fatal crash while driving under the influence he would face a murder charge.
Miller said the second-degree murder charge was also filed because leading police on a chase is “inherently dangerous … He was playing Russian roulette with red lights and this was the consequence of that.”
Dr. Nicole Ellis, a pathologist for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, concluded that Perales died from a ruptured spleen and blunt force trauma from the crash, Miller said.
Alvarado was also shown to have a blood-alcohol level of .10, over the legal limit of .08 at the time of the crash, Miller said.
Alvarado’s attorney, Daniel Kim of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, said a defense expert pathologist will testify how Perales’ alcoholism contributed to his death.
Perales was admitted to a hospital after the crash and was discharged Sept. 26, 2020. He came back to the hospital two days later and died Oct. 5, 2020, Kim said.
“We all saw the video of this case,” Kim said. “In some sense the evidence may seem very simple to see and comprehend.”
But the “case turns” on what caused Perales’ death, Kim said.
Perales was given a battery of tests while at UC Irvine Medical Center and they found he was able to be released a few days later, Kim said.
“And that’s where his chronic alcoholism comes into play,” Kim said. When Perales was admitted he had a blood-alcohol level of .28, and he refused pain pills while first hospitalized.
“He never lost consciousness and spoke in complete sentences,” Kim said. “He was fixated on his own discharge.”
Doctors expected Perales to recover from his injuries from the crash, Kim said. Perales’ mother took her son home and minded him, except for two trips during those 48 hours, the attorney added.
Doctors advised Perales to not drink, Kim said. When Perales’ spleen ruptured he was rushed back to the hospital where doctors noted he was suffering delirium tremens, or a severe form of alcohol withdrawal, Kim said.
Perales had fractured his ribs previously due to falls, and that could have led to a delayed rupture of his spleen, Kim said.
“It was a miracle he survived” the crash, Kim said.
“It wasn’t the collision, it was during those 48 hours left to his own devices battling his alcoholism” that led to his death, Kim said.
The defense attorney also said his client did not commit kidnapping because he led the woman out of the car as soon as he could.