A man was sentenced to 11 years in state prison for crashing his car into a median in 2016 during a fight with his girlfriend, resulting in her death, officials said.
Giovanni Guzman, 25, pleaded no contest to a felony count of voluntary manslaughter in April during jury deliberations following a two-week trial centered around the death of 23-year-old Yadira Alvarez, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a released statement Thursday.
The deadly crash happened the evening of June 9, 2016 after the couple, who had recently reunited after being broken up for one year, had dinner in downtown Los Angeles followed by drinks at a bar in Paramount in celebration of Guzman’s birthday.
After leaving the bar, Guzman and Alvarez got into a fight prompting him to pull over. Another motorist also pulled over, according to prosecutors, and noticed Alvarez was in distress.
Guzman told the motorist to mind his business and leave the couple alone, prosecutors said in the statement. The motorist returned after sensing something was wrong and saw Alvarez and Guzman fighting outside of their car.
The motorist caught Guzman’s attention, telling him he was going to call 911. Prosecutors said as he was calling police for help, the motorist heard the screeching sound of tires and seconds later watched Guzman’s car smash into a median.
Alvarez, who according to a GoFundMe page was just one day away from graduating UC Irvine, was ejected from the car and pronounced dead at the scene.
Guzman was taken to hospital for treatment.
An expert testified during trial that Guzman’s blood alcohol content was nearly twice the legal limit.
