Daughter Of Man Hit, Killed By Drunk Driver Asks Sonoma County Judge To Spare Motorist Jail

A Santa Rosa man who faced seven years in prison was sentenced to five years’ probation, alcohol treatment and one year in the Sonoma County jail in connection with a DUI collision that killed an 81-year-old pedestrian in May.

Enrique Sanabria-Ruiz, 47, was charged with DUI and vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated for the death of Earnest Slone of Santa Rosa on May 13.

Slone was about to get into his 1969 Cadillac parked on Occidental Road west of Santa Rosa when he was struck by a 2002 Chevrolet 3500 truck with a utility bed driven by Sanabria-Ruiz.

Slone died at a hospital about a half-hour after the 4 p.m. collision.

Sanabria-Ruiz pleaded no contest in August to DUI with a blood-alcohol level 0.08 percent or more and admitted causing great bodily injury.

Slone’s daughter Patricia asked Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Shelly Averill to spare Sanabria-Ruiz a state prison sentence.

She said as an employee of the school system, she sees children who are growing up without their father’s presence and she did not want that to happen to Sanabria-Ruiz’s children.

Defense attorney Ben Adams said the children are 6 and 14 years old. Averill suspended a 7-year state prison term and sentenced Sanabria-Ruiz to probation and the county jail term.

Sanabria has 364 days credit for time served in the jail, but Averill ordered him to remain in jail until a bed is available at a residential alcohol treatment center.

County jail inmates earn two days credit for each day served.

The judge said she isn’t sure the outcome of the case would be the same if Slone’s daughter had not spoken in behalf of Sanabria-Ruiz.

She noted Slone’s daughter wanted that peace of mind, and she called her compassion for Sanabria-Ruiz’s family “a very unique perspective.”

“This is a singular event,” Averill said. “I don’t expect him to come before this court again.”

Adams told the judge Sanabria-Ruiz is “unbelievably remorseful” about Slone’s death.

He said his client could have posted bail but chose to remain in jail while the case was prosecuted.

Adams said Sanabria-Ruiz, a construction foreman at the time, didn’t flee the collision site but turned the truck around and cooperated with police.

He asked the judge to sentence him to probation. Deputy District Attorney Andrew Lukas did not argue for a state prison sentence. He agreed Sanabria-Ruiz has been remorseful and has no prior record.

The county probation department recommended residential treatment for Sanabria-Ruiz.

Adams said Sanabria-Ruiz’s blood alcohol level was 0.04 percent three hours after the collision and probably 0.10 percent when the side mirror of his truck struck Slone.

Adams said Sanabria-Ruiz is “a good man and a good dad who made a horrible mistake.”

--Bay City News

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