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- A judge sentenced Cameron Garcia to 188 years to life for the deaths of five passengers.
- A jury found Garcia guilty on five counts of vehicular manslaughter and carjacking.
- Prosecutors said Garcia drove a SUV that hit a tree at 101 mph along the Sacramento Delta.
A man received the maximum prison sentence for the 2023 drunk driving deaths of five people who were passengers in a vehicle that struck a tree at 101 mph and flipped along the Delta in Sacramento County.
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On Friday, Sacramento Superior Court Judge James Arguelles sentenced Cameron Garcia, 32, to 188 years to life in prison for the deadly crash, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday in a news release.
A jury in July found Garcia guilty on five counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. Court records show the judge, shortly before sentencing Garcia last week, denied a defense motion seeking a new trial.
Prosecutors said Garcia also was convicted of carjacking for stealing a woman’s car to flee the crash scene, which led to a police pursuit into Elk Grove and him ultimately being apprehended after he tried to steal a second car.
Garcia’s conviction included an enhancement for fleeing after committing a gross vehicular manslaughter and personally using a deadly weapon in the commission of the offense. Garcia entered a plea and was convicted of evading police officers before his trial in June.
Prosecutors said all passengers in the vehicle Garcia was driving — Monte Nunn, 29; Faith Nicole Samuel, 18; Izabelle Salaz-Stephens 19; Curvontay Swygert, 16; and Aahliya Mariah Garcia, 17 — were pronounced dead at the scene. All five passengers were Sacramento residents.
The deadly single-vehicle crash involving a Cadillac Escalade was reported shortly before 5:30 p.m. Feb. 9, 2023, in the 8600 block of River Road, according to the California Highway Patrol. That stretch of the rural road is signed as Highway 160 along the river’s east bank, about a mile south of the Freeport Bridge.
Before the crash, Garcia had spent the day drinking alcohol by the Sacramento River, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Garcia then got into the sport utility vehicle with the five passengers and drove the Cadillac down River Road just south of the Freeport Bridge.
Prosecutors said the road curved, and Garcia drove off the road down an embankment and hit a tree going 101 mph. Garcia never stepped on the brakes before the SUV hit the tree; only the vehicle’s accelerator was applied, according to the DA’s Office.
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The SUV flipped 180 degrees, tearing off its entire right side and most of its roof. The CHP said all five passengers were ejected from the vehicle. Garcia suffered multiple injuries in the crash.
As bystanders began to arrive at the crash site, Garcia tried to take several cars, prosecutors said.
A woman who was nearby heard the vehicle crash and drove her Volkswagen sedan to the crash site. Prosecutors said Garcia got into her car, pushed her out of the driver’s seat and sped off in her vehicle.
Garcia drove into Elk Grove, where he was chased by multiple law enforcement patrol cars and helicopters, according to the DA’s Office.
Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies and Elk Grove police officers spotted the carjacked vehicle and pursued the speeding suspect onto Elk Grove Boulevard and Fire Poppy Drive, across the street from Valley Hi Country Club.
Residents in Laguna Estates and Elk Grove Greens, where the chase ended, flooded social media with accounts of a chaotic scene: As many as 20 law enforcement vehicles lined Elk Grove Boulevard and Fire Poppy Drive as a helicopter buzzed overhead.
Prosecutors said Garcia crashed the stolen car into another vehicle, but he failed to steal a second car. Garcia then ran into the neighborhood, prosecutors said, before authorities chased him down and apprehended him.
Garcia, in custody, was taken to a hospital. Prosecutors said blood tests showed Garcia had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.11%, more than the legal limit of 0.08% for drivers in California, an hour and a half after the deadly crash. He also had marijuana in his system, according to the DA’s Office.
On Tuesday, Garcia remained in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail awaiting a transfer to a prison.
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