Driver’s BAC More Than Double Legal Limit After Fatal Crash: CHP

LIVERMORE, CA — A Livermore woman arrested Thursday on suspicion of murder and gross vehicular manslaughter following a deadly crash near Livermore on Nov. 22 was arraigned today. Lauren April Davis, 26, who is being held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, made her first court appearance this afternoon. Davis is also charged with three counts of causing injury while drunk driving by a person with prior convictions, as prosecutors say she has two previous convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

California Highway Patrol investigators arrested Davis at a home in Livermore Thursday afternoon. CHP officials said the night before Thanksgiving, the blue Kia Sorento Davis was driving left the road, overturned several times and came to rest on the first set of railroad tracks. Five people were in the SUV at the time of the wreck.

Violet Campbell, 16, who attended Village High School in Pleasanton, was killed immediately after she was partially ejected. Livermore native Alexys 'Lexy' Garcia, 25, who was fully ejected, died a week later after succumbing to her injuries, according to officials. Davis suffered minor injuries during the deadly collision. A funeral for Campbell was held on Dec. 3. And a celebration of life was held for Garcia on January 6.

CHP officials arrested Davis at the scene but she was later released from jail pending further investigation. On January 16, the completed collision investigation was presented to the Alameda County District Attorney's office who charged Davis in the deadly crash.

The CHP said in a probable cause statement that it determined that Davis was driving under the influence based on her admission to consuming alcohol prior to driving, passenger statements confirming that she was consuming alcohol and marijuana before driving as well as her "objective symptoms of alcohol intoxication."

The law enforcement agency said a field sobriety test wasn't administered on Davis due to the nature of the injuries she suffered in the accident and because she refused to submit to a preliminary alcohol-screening Test. But the agency said Davis eventually chose to submit to a blood test after she was arrested and a test at 3:05 a.m. on Nov. 23, about three hours after the crash, showed that she had a blood alcohol content of 0.16, two times the legal limit of 0.08, and tested positive for marijuana.

The CHP said that minutes before the collision passengers in Davis' car warned her that she was driving dangerously. The agency said that in addition to the injuries that claimed the lives of Campbell and Garcia, the crash caused an 18-year-old passenger to suffer a right wrist fracture and a 22-year-old passenger to suffer a nasal fracture and a right pulmonary contusion.

Prosecutors say Davis previously was convicted of drunk driving both on Aug. 4, 2016, and on May 22, 2017. The CHP said that between June 2 and July 7 of 2017 Davis completed a driving under the influence program which covered the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and the Watson advisement.

The purpose of that advisement is to create a legal record that people are aware of the dangers driving while under the influence poses to themselves and to others and they can't claim they didn't understand the consequences if they are ever involved in another driving under the influence incident.

Davis is scheduled to return to court on Wednesday to be assigned an attorney and possibly enter a plea.

Bay City News contributed to this report

Photo courtesy CHP