A 25-year-old man was convicted on a voluntary manslaughter charge in a Paramount crash that killed his girlfriend last year, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s said Friday.
Giovanni Guzman entered a no contest plea to the felony on Thursday, during jury deliberations after a two-week trial, according to a DA’s news release.
He is expected to get 11 years in prison when he is sentenced next month, prosecutors said.
The crash happened on the evening of June 9, 2016, after Guzman and the victim, 23-year-old Yadira Alvarez, had dinner in Downtown Los Angeles to celebrate his birthday, the release stated. The couple had recently reunited after a yearlong breakup.
After dinner, the pair went to a bar in Paramount, where Guzman drank. They left the location, and the defendant got behind the wheel, according to prosecutors.
The couple got into an argument while driving, prompting Guzman to pull the car over. Another motorist also stopped his vehicle, the release stated.
The other driver told authorities that Alvarez appeared to be in distress at the time.
Guzman tried to get the motorist to leave them alone, telling him to mind his own business, according to court testimony. But the motorist, who sensed something wasn’t right, returned to the scene, where he found the couple fighting outside the car, according to the release.
The man caught Guzman’s attention and told him he was going to call 911. While dialing, however, the motorist heard the screeching sound of tires.
Moment later, he saw the vehicle had crashed into a median, prosecutors said.
Alvarez was ejected from the car and pronounced dead at the scene.
The defendant was taken to a hospital, where his blood alcohol content was measured at nearly twice the legal limit, according to the release.
Guzman was charged four days after the crash.
According to a GoFundMe page, the victim was just one day away from graduating at UC Irvine before the fatal crash.
Alvarez was described in the fundraising page as a “true angel,” who worked hard and tried to make others around her happy.
“Beauty and brains isn’t nearly enough to explain the beautiful person she was,” Karina Gallegos Hernandez wrote. “So young and the world all in her hands. She had a bright future ahead of her, only a day away from graduating and pursuing her dreams. So healthy and full of life, our angel has left us so unexpectedly with an unbearable hole in our hearts.”
