A 29-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday to getting behind the wheel while drunk and crashing his car into a tree in Lake Forest, killing his passenger.
Richard Barnes Jacobsen III pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, a felony, and driving on a suspended license, a misdemeanor. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 12 at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
The May 5, 2016, crash at Lake Forest Drive and Jeronimo Road killed Jessica Lujan of Anaheim, who died a day after her 26th birthday.
Lujan and Jacobsen, who had dated on and off, were “rekindling” the relationship and had spent the day at Disneyland for her birthday and then went out drinking, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Whitney Bokosky, the original prosecutor on the case.
Jacobsen’s blood-alcohol level was measured at .13, well above the legal limit of .08, following the 3:35 a.m. crash, Bokosky said.
Jacobsen pleaded guilty on Dec. 5, 2011, to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and driving at an unsafe speed and was placed on three years of informal probation, according to court records.