Driver Accused Of Killing Mom In DUI Wreck Declines To Enter Plea

A 34-year-old man accused of vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving charges for a crash that killed his mother last month in unincorporated San Mateo County made his initial appearance in court Tuesday.

Arsen Tarkovskiy, a Los Gatos resident, declined to enter a plea for the charges related to the Oct. 21 crash on state Highway 92 just west of Interstate Highway 280 near Belmont, San Mateo County prosecutors said.

Tarkovskiy was driving west on Highway 92 shortly before 8:45 p.m. in a 2009 Mercedes-Benz with his mother, 70-year-old Saida Magomedova in the front passenger seat, prosecutors and California Highway Patrol officials said.

The Mercedes drifted over the double-yellow lines on the highway and collided with a 2003 Honda CR-V, 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix and 2003 Volvo SUV traveling east, according to the CHP.

Magomedova was pronounced dead at the scene of the collisions, while Tarkovskiy was taken to Stanford Hospital with major injuries and spent nine days there before being booked into jail, prosecutors said.

Tests taken nearly three hours after the collisions showed Tarkovskiy had a blood-alcohol content of .09, above the legal limit, prosecutors said.

He has a prior drunk driving conviction in 2012 and remains in jail with bail set at $325,000. He will return to court on Nov. 7 to possibly enter a plea and set a preliminary hearing date, prosecutors said.

Tarkovskiy's defense attorney Steven Clark was not immediately available to comment on the case.

— By Bay City News Service / Patch file photo by Renee Schiavone