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An Orange County lady has pleaded responsible to homicide after fatally working over a pregnant lady whose youngster was later delivered by emergency caesarean part.
Prosecutors say Courtney Fritz Pandolfi, 44, of Backyard Grove struck 23-year-old Yesenia Aguilar whereas she was strolling in Anaheim along with her husband, James Alvarez, round 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 11, 2020.
Each he and the couple’s daughter, Adalyn Rose, have been within the courtroom Tuesday when Pandolfi pleaded responsible to homicide, felony driving beneath the affect of medication and misdemeanor driving with a suspended license. She additionally pleaded responsible to a few extra misdemeanors for driving beneath the affect of medication in November 2019.
She is because of be sentenced on April 12, and faces a most sentence of 15 years to life.
“This can be a lady who made a behavior of driving whereas excessive,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer mentioned in an announcement. “She was warned time and again in regards to the risks of her actions. She knew it was unsuitable, however she determined that being excessive was extra essential than the lifetime of a younger lady who was simply weeks away from changing into a mom for the primary time.”
Pandolfi was beforehand convicted of driving beneath the affect of medication in 2008, 2015 and 2016, authorities mentioned.
Frederick Fascenelli, Pandolfi’s lawyer, mentioned his consumer was moved by Alvarez’s empathy. Fascenelli mentioned Alvarez spoke in courtroom on Tuesday and thanked the defendant “for taking duty for her conduct” by pleading responsible.
“My consumer achieved as we speak what she needed to do, which was to spare the household the extra grief and heartache of a trial,” Fascenelli mentioned. “She acknowledges it was a tragic state of affairs of her making.”
Pandolfi, who Spitzer mentioned was beneath the affect of cocaine and methamphetamine, was driving a Jeep when she jumped the curb and crashed right into a metallic newspaper rack earlier than persevering with on and hitting Aguilar, who was on the sidewalk.
She neither braked nor took evasive maneuvers, in response to Spitzer. The Jeep stopped solely after it turned disabled, at which level it had traveled 347 toes down the sidewalk.
Adalyn was delivered by emergency C-section the day her mom died.
“Yesenia’s reminiscence will reside on via her stunning little lady,” Spitzer mentioned. “However that little lady is rising up with out ever having the ability to hug her mom or hear her voice as a result of a stranger determined to make the egocentric determination to get behind the wheel whereas excessive on medication.”
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