Patch.com reports that an Orange County Court has convicted an Anaheim man of the charge of second-degree murder for his role in a fatal crash in 2018 that claimed a little girl’s life.
Maximino Delgado Lagunas, 56, was found guilty on Wednesday by a court in Fullerton in relation to a crash on February 17, 2018.
According to the reports, a 6-year-old girl was playing on the sidewalk near her home on Lombard Street when Lagunas driving a 1990 Toyota 4Runner SUV, struck and killed her.
Investigators found that Lagunas had been driving eastbound on Gage Avenue when he attempted to turn south onto Lombard. During the turn, Lagunas lost control of his vehicle, swerving onto the sidewalk where the child was playing. Lagunas kept going until the SUV collided with a parked vehicle on Lombard before coming to a stop.
The child was declared dead at the scene.
Lagunas told police officers responding to the scene that he had just left a job site a short distance away when his brakes failed.
A blood alcohol test taken approximately five hours after the crash indicated that Lagunas had a blood alcohol level of .158 to .16. At Lagunas’ preliminary hearing, a legal expert testified that his BAC was about .22 or .23 . Either way, Lagunas’ blood-alcohol levels were nearly two or three times the legal limit of .08 percent.
Because Lagunas had a previous conviction of DUI for a crash on December 11, 2015, in Buena Park, prosecutors upgraded the usual charge of manslaughter to second-degree murder.
Lagunas is scheduled to be sentenced on September 9.
