An Orange County girl has pleaded responsible to homicide after fatally working over a pregnant girl whose baby was later delivered by emergency caesarean part.
Prosecutors say Courtney Fritz Pandolfi, 44, of Backyard Grove struck 23-year-old Yesenia Aguilar whereas she was strolling in Anaheim together with her husband, James Alvarez, round 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 11, 2020.
Each he and the couple’s daughter, Adalyn Rose, have been within the courtroom Tuesday when Pandolfi pleaded responsible to homicide, felony driving below the affect of medicine and misdemeanor driving with a suspended license. She additionally pleaded responsible to a few further misdemeanors for driving below the affect of medicine in November 2019.
She is because of be sentenced on April 12, and faces a most sentence of 15 years to life.
“This can be a girl who made a behavior of driving whereas excessive,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer mentioned in an announcement. “She was warned again and again concerning the risks of her actions. She knew it was incorrect, however she determined that being excessive was extra necessary than the lifetime of a younger girl who was simply weeks away from changing into a mom for the primary time.”
Pandolfi was beforehand convicted of driving below the affect of medicine in 2008, 2015 and 2016, authorities mentioned.
Frederick Fascenelli, Pandolfi’s lawyer, mentioned his consumer was moved by Alvarez’s empathy. Fascenelli mentioned Alvarez spoke in court docket on Tuesday and thanked the defendant “for taking duty for her conduct” by pleading responsible.
“My consumer achieved right now what she wished to do, which was to spare the household the extra grief and heartache of a trial,” Fascenelli mentioned. “She acknowledges it was a tragic state of affairs of her making.”
Pandolfi, who Spitzer mentioned was below the affect of cocaine and methamphetamine, was driving a Jeep when she jumped the curb and crashed right into a metallic newspaper rack earlier than persevering with on and hitting Aguilar, who was on the sidewalk.
She neither braked nor took evasive maneuvers, in accordance with Spitzer. The Jeep stopped solely after it turned disabled, at which level it had traveled 347 ft down the sidewalk.
Adalyn was delivered by emergency C-section the day her mom died.
“Yesenia’s reminiscence will dwell on by way of her lovely little lady,” Spitzer mentioned. “However that little lady is rising up with out ever with the ability to hug her mom or hear her voice as a result of a stranger determined to make the egocentric determination to get behind the wheel whereas excessive on medication.”
