Man Acquitted In Fatal DUI Crash That Killed Young Niece In OC

IRVINE, CA — A 38-year-old man was acquitted of second-degree murder Wednesday in a fatal 2021 crash in Irvine, but convicted of injuring another passenger.

After about a day of deliberating, jurors acquitted Jim Christopher Rosado of second-degree murder related to the death of his niece, but convicted him of driving under the influence of a drug causing injury and found true a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury on his niece's friend.

Rosado crashed his 2005 Honda Accord on June 13, 2021, killing his niece, Vanessa Ramirez.

He was immediately sentenced to five years in prison for the one conviction but he had 2,194 days credit in jail to cover that punishment, so he was set to be freed Wednesday, one of his attorneys, Sharon Tekolian, said.

Ramirez and her 19-year-old friend, Sarah Portillo, went to a party in Oceanside, but it ended up being "disappointing" so they called Rosado for a ride home, Deputy District Attorney Alyssa Staudinger said in her opening statement of the trial.

"They had a drink and smoked marijuana," but decided not to ask a "visibly intoxicated" man at the party for a ride home. "Instead they got in touch with her uncle," Staudinger said.

Rosado started driving from Bell to Oceanside and picked up the two at about 4:30 a.m.

Before waking up to first responders, the last moment Portillo recalled was the defendant stopping for gas, Staudinger said.

At about 5:25 a.m., multiple other motorists saw Rosado driving erratically on the northbound Santa Ana (5) Freeway in Irvine, Staudinger said. He appeared to be going about 90 mph and nearly rear-ended a Lexus and almost sideswiped another vehicle, the prosecutor added.

Rosado veered off the road with "little to no braking" and slammed into a sign, a guardrail, an electrical box and a pole before going airborne and ending up in trees and shrubbery at Culver Drive, Staudinger said.

Portillo broke a collarbone and Rosado escaped serious injury. Ramirez was ejected from the backseat out the back window and died instantly.

A blood draw at a hospital at about 6 a.m. showed Rosado had 819 nanograms of methamphetamine, 116 nanograms of amphetamine and morphine, or heroin, in his system, Staudinger said.

The prosecutor pointed to advisements on a driver's license application and paperwork from a plea bargain on a DUI charge in 2011 about the dangers of driving intoxicated to justify an upgraded charge from voluntary manslaughter to second-degree murder.

The law supports an upgraded charge of murder because of the previous advisements about the dangers of DUI, Staudinger said.

"This decision should not be an emotional decision," Staudinger told jurors in her closing argument. "It was never in dispute he loved Vanessa ... This case is not about feeling bad for someone."

Rosado ignored the dangers of driving under the influence, Staudinger argued.

"When it came to driving and being under the influence of drugs he has lived his life as if the rules do not apply to him," Staudinger said. "I am asking you to hold the defendant accountable for his conduct and his decisions."

Rosado's attorney, Lee Stonum of the Alternate Defender's Office, argued the prosecution failed to prove the defendant acted with "implied malice," a necessary element of the second-degree murder law.

"Jim Rosado lost a person who was closest in the world to him," Stonum said. Stonum showed jurors video of his client crying in a hospital room following the crash. Rosado cried in court watching the video.

Rosado had methamphetamine and heroin in his system as he made the hours-long trek to pick up his niece, but Stonum argued that did not prove he was impaired. The defense attorney said his client drove for hours without any issues until he apparently fell asleep at the wheel.

Stonum argued the prosecution failed to prove that Rosado knew what he was doing had a high probability for a death and then consciously disregarded that risk. In fact, Stonum argued, Rosado went to pick up his niece and her friend because they were "stranded" in Oceanside.

Unless the prosecution can prove Rosado was impaired "their whole case collapses," Stonum argued.

Staudinger argued impairment from the drugs was not the entire case.

"It's the totality of his conduct," Staudinger argued. A driver speeding and on drugs crashing is not unexpected, Staudinger said.

"The argument that other people have beaten the odds" of crashing while under the influence "is absurd," Staudinger argued. "No one would argue Russian Roulette isn't inherently dangerous" because some people avoid killing themselves, she said.

The fact that Rosado's family did not wish prosecution shouldn't matter either, Staudinger argued.

"It does not take away the fact that Vanessa did not deserve to die," she said.

Rosado lived with his sister and her daughter as well as other family members in Bell.

"They were a tight-knit family. They love one another and the reason Jim was driving at 5:30 that morning was because Vanessa and her friend were an hour-and-a-half away, drinking and stranded," Stonum said in his opening statement of the trial.

The call in the middle of the night for a ride was a "surprise," Stonum said.

Ramirez turned to him for help because she knew he would not lecture her and because he was dependable, Stonum said.

"He wanted to rescue her. He wanted to make certain she was safe," Stonum said. "He did not save her and that's the tragedy of this case."

The defense attorney added, "There is a very natural feeling when someone dies to punish someone. But not every death is a murder and Jim Rosado is not a murderer."

Jurors only had the option of second-degree murder in the case and could not consider lesser offenses such as manslaughter.