A 30-year-old man convicted of plowing his pickup into a crowd of pedestrians on a sidewalk in downtown Fullerton in 2019 resolved his legal issues in the case Monday when he pleaded guilty to DUI causing injury and was sentenced to time served in jail.
Christopher Jose Solis pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of a drug causing injury and admitted sentencing enhancements for inflicting great bodily injury. Over the objections of prosecutors, Solis accepted a plea bargain from Orange County Superior Court Judge Larry Yellin to also plead guilty to an infraction of possessing cannabis by a driver. He was sentenced to 286 days in jail, time he has already served in the case.
Solis was convicted in February 2024 of a felony count of failing to stop at a hit-and-run accident with injury as well as misdemeanor counts of hit-and-run with property damage and possession of a controlled substance. Jurors, however, deadlocked 7-5 in favor of guilt on the felony count of driving under the influence of a drug causing injury.
Before those verdicts, Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Paer dismissed two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
Yellin placed Solis on three years of formal probation and ordered him to complete a three-month first offender alcohol program.
Solis careened into the crowd of pedestrians just before 1:50 a.m. Feb. 10, 2019.
Solis “made a calculated decision to swerve onto the sidewalk … into a crowd of people,” Deputy District Attorney Caitlin Harrington said in her opening statement of the trial in 2024.
Riley Hoover sustained complex facial fractures and was left with “lifelong injuries” in the crash, Harrington said. Another victim sustained a dislocated hip, while a woman suffered a broken pelvis, the prosecutor added. One man suffered a burned foot, and another woman’s teeth were cracked.
Shortly after midnight the day of the crash, Solis was pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers on the San Diego (5) Freeway in Mission Viejo and cited and released for driving under the influence of marijuana and Xanax, Harrington said.
The defendant continued driving to a music studio in Santa Ana, where he smoked marijuana, Harrington said. From there, he drove to downtown Fullerton where there are a lot of clubs and restaurants, the prosecutor said.
When he got back into his Toyota Tacoma he “zoomed down an alley on Santa Fe” where he first collided with a car driven by Uber driver Hector Quiroz.
The prosecutor showed video that showed Solis swerving and plowing into the pedestrians.
“Defendant hopped a planter and collided with a tree … the only thing that stopped him,” Harrington said.
Multiple bystanders angrily confronted Solis and a fight broke out as they detained him until police arrived, Harrington said. Some of the bystanders lifted the defendant’s truck up to free two of the trapped victims, the prosecutor added.
Solis told police, “These drunk people got in my way,” Harrington said. “There’s zero accountability for the choice that he made,” she said.
Solis failed field sobriety tests, the prosecutor said.
“It was clear the defendant was impaired by something,” Harrington said, adding that the “white and green film” he had on his mouth was consistent with marijuana ingestion.
Blood tests showed he had marijuana in his system as well as flualprazolam, which is “the version (of Xanax) you get on the street … for partying,” Harrington alleged. Fullerton police found three more of the depressant pills in the truck.
Solis’ attorney in the 2024 trial, Alan Spears, said the prosecution’s case was a “gross oversimplification” of what happened.
“The Fullerton police rushed to judgment,” he said.
Spears argued that his client, “while maybe the proximate cause of this accident, is not criminally responsible.”
He added that the jurors would “have to consider whether Uber and Lyft drivers were negligent.” The attorney said the drivers’ alleged double parking to pick up fares in the area may have “broken the chain of causation.”
The ride-hailing and taxi drivers have a designated area to park to pick up their patrons, but they were not using them, Spears said.
Solis’ “brains were scrambled a little bit” after crashing into a tree and getting beaten by the angry mob, Spears said.
The defendant had an expert testify that an event data recorder retrieved from Solis’ truck showed he was only going about 11 mph when he swerved away from one of the ride-hailing vehicles, Spears said.