Hit-and-Run Driver in Deadly San Mateo Crash Gets Probation

By Bay City News Service:

A man was sentenced to probation Friday for fleeing the scene of a crash in 2012 that killed a man standing at a San Mateo bus stop, prosecutors said this week.

Josue Lopez, 28, of San Mateo, received the sentence from San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Lisa Novak of four years’ probation and one year in jail after he was convicted by a jury in July of felony hit-and-run resulting in injury, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

Lopez will be released on probation because he has credit for time served of more than a year in jail already since the crash on Nov. 24, 2012.

While he was convicted of felony hit-and-run, the jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquittal on charges of vehicular manslaughter and 9-3 for acquittal of child endangerment charges, prosecutors said.

Lopez had his 5-year-old child in the backseat of his 1994 Chevrolet Camaro as he was driving recklessly in a Kmart parking lot in the 1700 block of South Delaware Street. He lost control of the car, the rear end spinning out and tires screeching, and hit a cement garbage container at a bus stop where 67-year-old Reynaldo Aguiniga was standing, police and prosecutors said.

The crash pushed the cement container into Aguiniga and crushed him against a tree. Witnesses told police that Lopez then got out of the car, looked at Aguiniga and said something to him, then got back in the car and drove away.

A witness took down the Camaro’s license plate number, leading police to Lopez.

Aguiniga was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead there shortly after he arrived, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors moved to dismiss the manslaughter and child endangerment charges after the jury deadlocked but sought a sentence of four years in prison.

However, the judge decided since Lopez did not have a criminal record, expressed remorse for the crime and had already served more than 500 days in custody waiting for the case to be completed, he should be sentenced to probation.

He was also ordered to pay Aguiniga’s family $4,560 in restitution and $3,472 to the Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board.

(Image via Shutterstock)