Man Involved In Alcohol-Fueled DUI Death In Seal Beach Pleads Guilty

SEAL BEACH, CA — A 34-year-old man pleaded guilty Thursday to an alcohol-fueled crash that killed a woman in Seal Beach last year.

Los Angeles resident German Juarez pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated without gross negligence, one count each of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol level greater than the legal limit of .8 percent, court records said.

The crash happened Nov. 4 2021 shortly before 3:45 p.m. when Seal Beach police officers received a call of a serious traffic accident near Seal Beach Boulevard and St. Andrews Drive, near the Leisure World retirement community.

Responding officers discovered two vehicles had collided in the intersection, a previous Patch report said. Orange County Fire Authority medics took both drivers and one passenger to local hospitals by ambulance.

The victim, a woman who had been driving one of the vehicles, was pronounced dead at the hospital, Lt. Nick Nicholas of the Seal Beach Police Department said. She was identified on the criminal complaint as Guadalupe I, and requests for her full name were not immediately answered.

Juarez was scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 21 in the West Justice Center in Westminster.

City News Service contributed to this report.