Couple pleads no contest in hit-and-run that killed USC student, injured another

By AP
Thursday, March 11, 2010

Couple pleads no contest in deadly USC hit-and-run

LOS ANGELES — A married couple charged in a hit-and-run crash that killed a University of Southern California student and seriously injured another in a crosswalk near campus pleaded no contest on Thursday.

Claudia Cabrera and Josue Luna entered pleas in Superior Court as jury selection was about to begin.

Cabrera was driving the car that ran a red light and killed 18-year-old Adrianna Bachan of Santa Barbara last March 29. Marcus Garfinkle of Scottsdale, Ariz., who was then 19, suffered two broken legs and was carried up to 400 feet on the car’s windshield.

Prosecutors said the car stopped only long enough for Luna, 33, to pull Garfinkle off and dump him in the street.

The couple pleaded no contest to one count each of felony hit-and-run with the allegation that they inflicted great bodily harm. Cabrera, 31, also pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.

Cabrera could face up to eight years in prison and Luna could receive seven years when the two are sentenced on May 24.

The couple were coming home from a family gathering with their 7-month-old son in the car. Police said Cabrera was driving with a suspended license because she had failed to pay traffic tickets.

Bachan’s mother, Carmen, made several emotional televised appearances just after the accident, asking for help in capturing the hit-and-run driver.

Cabrera was arrested in early April after $235,000 in reward money was posted. Luna was arrested about two weeks later while trying to cross back into the United States from Mexico.

Luna told KNBC-TV just after his arrest that he thought the traffic light was green. Neither he nor his wife saw any pedestrians in the crosswalk, he said.

“It was a very bad accident,” Luna said. “We were just scared. I didn’t know what to do. We both didn’t know what to do.”

Luna said he left Garfinkle in the street because there was a fire station nearby.

“It’s always busy, so I figured that was the best bet and they could help him,” he said. “The first thing that came to our mind were our children.”

Carmen Bachan called Cabrera “an animal” just after her arrest.

“I hope she rots in hell,” she told reporters while clutching her daughter’s photograph. “That’s what I want.”

The families of the victims will have a chance to make statements at the sentencing hearing.

The couple rejected plea bargains last year that would have sentenced Cabrera to four years and Luna to six years in prison.

Luna’s attorney, Jeffrey Benice, said Thursday that the couple is facing a minimum sentence of about three years each. He will argue for the lesser sentence, he said.

“They’ve expressed many, many times their remorse for the accident,” Benice said. “The wife’s a schoolteacher, the husband’s a contractor. They have absolutely no criminal history.”

The couple have been jailed for nearly a year and their two children have been staying with other family members, he said.

“Their lives have essentially been destroyed as well,” he said.

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