Jail Sentence Upheld in 2008 Colorado Boulevard Crash

A state appeals court panel Tuesday upheld a young man's four-year county jail sentence for a high-speed crash in Eagle Rock that killed four people, including a pregnant woman and her teenage sister and brother.

The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense's contention that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders abused his discretion in imposing the maximum term on Rostislav
Shnayder.

"The factors cited by the trial court here are supported by the record and justify the sentence choice,'' the panel's 13-page ruling says. The justices noted that the judge "credited appellant for not fleeing the scene of the collision.''

Shnayder was convicted in August 2010 of four counts of misdemeanor
vehicular manslaughter with ordinary negligence. Jurors acquitted Shnayder—
who was 19 at the time of the Aug. 27, 2008 crash—of the more serious
felony charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Shnayder was speeding on Colorado Boulevard when he slammed on his brakes and lost control of his car, which veered into the lane where Cristyn Cordova was driving, Deputy District Attorney Candice Reiter told jurors during the trial.

Cordova lost control of her 2007 Nissan Maxima, which was nearly sliced in half when it slammed into a tree, according to the prosecutor.

Killed in the crash were Cordova, who was eight months pregnant; Cordova's younger sister, Toni Marie, 16; her 15-year-old brother, Andrew, and 19-year-old family friend Jason Gomez-Hernandez.

Shnayder's attorney, Jilbert Tahmazian, countered that his client "was not a substantial factor in causing this collision.'' Shnayder, who was free on bail during the trial, was taken into custody immediately after the sentence was imposed in September 2010 and remains jailed without bail.