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Ventura County man convicted of murder after his car hit people helping traffic accident victims

Tim Hufner
/
Unsplash

Man is facing a potential 22 years to life in state prison.

A Ventura County man has been convicted of second-degree murder, after being found guilty of hitting, and killing a woman who had stopped to help some car accident victims.

Prosecutors say the DUI crash happened in July of 2018, on Pleasant Valley Road in Oxnard.

Two vehicles had stopped at the scene of a traffic accident to help. Francisco Garcia was driving eastbound on Pleasant Valley Road when he smashed into the stopped vehicles.

Elicia Lopez-Hernandez was killed, and a second person was seriously injured. Garcia fled the scene on foot. The 29-year-old Oxnard man was found hiding on the roof of a nearby building. Investigators say his blood alcohol level was at nearly three times the legal limit. He’s facing 22 years to life in prison when he’s sentenced next month.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.