A teen driver whose 2015 street race in Wilmington left another teen driver and her brother dead was sentenced Monday to a year in jail and five years of probation.
Carlos Hernandez, now 19, had last week entered a no contest plea to three felonies in connection with the fatal Jan. 29, 2015, crash: two counts of reckless driving on a highway causing a specified injury, and one count of vehicular manslaughter.
Hernandez was racing 18-year-old Elexis Garcia on Pacific Coast Highway, when Garcia lost control of her car and crashed into oncoming traffic.
Garcia and her 16-year-old brother Elias, both students at nearby Banning High School, were killed. Two of Garcia’s friends received serious injuries, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which announced the Hernandez’s sentence.
During the high-speed race, Hernandez’s pickup truck “suddenly moved sideways in the direction of Garcia’s lane as her car was catching up,” a DA’s news release stated. Garcia then lost control.
The truck sped away after the crash, prompting a search by the Los Angeles Police Department. Hernandez was arrested April 23, 2015, inmate records show.
A judge ordered Hernandez to take part in a hospital and morgue program, and to attend classes on the consequences of reckless driving.
He was taken into custody at the Long Beach courthouse Monday, according to inmate records.