Woman in Pomona DUI Death of Woman Pleads no Contest

A young woman pleaded no contest Monday to drunken driving and other charges stemming from a crash last year in Pomona that left one of her passengers dead.
Raelene Marie Martinez -- who was 20 at the time of the April 7, 2013, crash -- pleaded no contest to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI causing injury and two related charges, according to the Los Angeles County
District Attorney’s Office.

Martinez, now 21, also admitted an allegation of personally inflicting great bodily injury.

Raelene Marie Martinez pleaded no contest to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI causing injury and two related charges.

She is facing six years in state prison, with sentencing set Friday in a Pomona courtroom.
Martinez took her hands off her car’s steering wheel and began hitting the front passenger because she believed the person had been involved at an altercation at a party they had attended, according to Deputy District Attorney Sandra Jimenez.
She lost control of the car, which struck a curb and two other cars before flipping over, authorities said.
The car’s back passenger, Sarena Vargas, 19, of Upland was ejected from the car and died at the scene, according to the prosecutor. Martinez and three of her other passengers were also injured.
She was later arrested and charged in connection with the crash.
According to law enforcement officers at the time of the crash, Martinez was traveling north in a Toyota Camry in the 1500 block of North San Antonio Avenue when the car crashed.
Abraham Batres had just parked his black, 2000 Toyota Corolla in the 1600 block of San Antonio Avenue and gone into a building.
He came out after hearing the crash to find the front bumper, hood, lights and window of his car smashed, Los Angeles County fire dispatch Supervisor Robert Diaz said.
Batres said he was certified to perform CPR, so he tried to help the woman lying motionless on the ground.
“She was unresponsive, so I called 9-1-1,” Batres told news crews at the scene.
He said three young men were out of the vehicle, walking around and it appeared a woman had been driving.
“They were all just hugging each other, crying -- it was all chaotic,’’ Batres said.
A 1990s model Ford Thunderbird belonging to Batres’ friend -- and parked behind Batres’ car -- was wrecked by the dark sedan that had overturned between their cars and a fence, Batres said.
Investigators found evidence to suggest Martinez was under the influence of alcohol, Hsu said.
According to ABC7, a witness reported the driver of the crashed car throwing beer cans out the window before the wreck.