Man Admits Woman Fell from His Tanker Truck

A 33-year-old Hawthorne man pleaded guilty today to a hit-and-run involving the death of a 51-year-old woman who tumbled out of the defendant’s truck while it was moving in Santa Ana and was immediately sentenced to one year in jail and five years of probation.

Jaqwun Laerin Turner pleaded guilty to felony hit and run with permanent and serious injury.

Turner was driving a petroleum tanker truck that Martha Rodezno of Los Angeles fell out of just before 2:45 a.m. Dec. 8, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

Rodezno had a dispute at a family party in Mission Viejo Dec. 8 and walked to a gas station near Avery Parkway and the Santa Ana (5) Freeway in Laguna Niguel about midnight, Bertagna said.

Rodezno apparently was asking for rides and ended up getting into Turner’s truck, Bertagna said.

Rodezno opened the passenger side door and fell from the truck as it approached the Garden Grove (22) Freeway, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Another motorist saw Rodezno falling from the truck northbound on the freeway near the Garden Grove (22) Freeway and called police, Bertagna said. The truck kept going northbound, he added.

Police managed to track down the truck company and then determined who was driving the vehicle at that time, Bertagna said.

Turner will also lose his commercial driver’s license for one year, according to a court order in the sentencing, but the Department of Motor Vehicles may issue further sanctions, according to the defendant’s attorney, Errol Cook.

“The judge stated that he received the sentence because other people were at the assistance of the deceased almost immediately and Mr. Turner’s actions would not have changed the resulting death,” Cook said.

“Mr. Turner is very remorseful for what happened and has expressed his condolences to her son.”

--City News Service

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