Los Angeles police have arrested a woman and charged her with the hit and run death of a University of Southern California student and injury of a second student. Last week, Claudia Cabrera, 30, was arrested by LAPD on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter. She is being held on $1 million bail in the Van Nuys women's jail. The hit and run case has shocked Los Angeles by its very callousness. According to multiple witnesses, the driver stopped only long enough for a passenger to exit the car and pull one of the students off the windshield.
At a widely reported press conference, LAPD First Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said Cabrera was driving with a suspended license for failure to pay a ticket issued for a routine traffic violation. Besides the unnamed passenger, Cabrera's 7-month-old son was also in the car. Police are seeking Cabrera's husband, Josue Luna, as a person of interest.
Killed as 18-year-old Adrianna Bachn of Santa Barbara. Marcus Garfinkle, 19, of Scottsdale, Arizona was seriously injured when Cabrera's sedan ran a red light and struck the two students in the early morning hours as they walked back to their residence halls. Garfinkle, who was pulled off the windshield and left in the gutter, suffered two broken legs and additional injuries.
Rewards totaling $235,000 are being offered by Los Angeles, the county and USC for information that leads to arrests and convictions in the case.
It is the legal responsibility of any individual involved in an accident to stop and exchange driver documentation, said expert Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Stephen Rodriguez. Leaving the scene of an accident before doing so is considered hit and run in California and may carry criminal charges. The responsibility to exchange information applies whether the accident involves a pedestrian, moving car, parked car or someone's property. It applies even if the accident was not your fault, Rodriguez explained.
When a hit and run accident involves death or serious bodily injury, as in the USC hit and run case, "California law requires the driver to render reasonable aid to the injured person," Rodriguez said. If a death occurs, the driver must report the accident immediately to the nearest police station or Department of California Highway Patrol office.
For more information on hit and run crimes and criminal charges in Los Angeles, visit the website of Stephen G. Rodriquez & Associates.
Please show photos of the two suspects (illegal aliens, again?)