10-Year- 4-Month Sentence Expected For North Co. Driver In I-15 Fatal Hit-and-Run

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA – PHOTOS: Crash victims Lina Pelembergo Nebrida, 64, and Keira Magat, 2.

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A motorist who rear-ended a vehicle on Interstate 15 near Scripps Poway Parkway, triggering another collision that killed a toddler and her grandmother, is scheduled to be sentenced today at the downtown courthouse.

Grant Thoren, 31, pleaded guilty last month to gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run causing injury or death.

Prosecutors were not able to prove that Thoren was under the influence of drugs at the time, so those allegations were dropped, said Deputy District Attorney Nicole Rooney. The defendant is expected to be sentenced to 10 years and four months in state prison.

Thoren, of Vista, was arrested at his home a few hours after he fled the scene after rear-ending -- and disabling -- a woman's car on southbound Interstate 15 just before 2 a.m. last Sept. 10.

Jasmine Magat's 2-year-old daughter, Keira, and the child's grandmother, 64-year-old Lina Pelembergo Nebrida, were killed when their disabled Honda was subsequently hit by a Toyota Tacoma truck.

Thoren's Cadillac CTS struck Magat's sedan from behind, and the truck hit the Honda before help could arrive, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Jasmine Magat and her 5-year-old daughter were seriously injured but survived the crash.

The Magat family was in the process of moving from Temecula to the National City area when the accident happened, according to their pastor.

Friends of the Magat family raised $13,948 via a GoFundMe page to help with the survivors' medical expenses and other financial needs.

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--City News Service contributed to this report/Images via GoFundMe