Drunk, wrong way driver kills cyclist

[BobO]

Wasted in the morning, driving the wrong way in a 15 mph zone in a public park and hits 2 pedestrians and a cyclist. Then leaves and is only caught because she wrecked her car on a boulder at the bottom of the hill.

At least she's been charged with MURDER.

Condolences to the family and friends.

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - A cyclist was killed and a woman is facing a murder charge after a hit-and-run crash on 'A' Mountain early Thursday, Oct. 11.

According to Sgt. Pete Dugan of the Tucson Police Department, 20-year-old Yanibra Moreno has been booked into the Pima County Jail. No bond has been set.

A 73-year-old man was biking up the mountain when he was hit by a vehicle that was coming down in the wrong lane. His identity has no yet been released.

Moreno allegedly also hit two pedestrians and several boulders before coming to a stop near the parking area.

The cyclist died at a hospital while the pedestrians suffered minor injuries. Moreno was treated at a hospital for her injuries.

TPD said Moreno showed signs of impairment. She is facing charges of second-degree murder, felony hit and run and two counts of aggravated assault.

As of 6:39 p.m. Sentinel Peak Road is back open and detectives have cleared the scene, according to the TPD.

#BREAKING: 73-year-old male cyclist hit by a car on ‘A’ Mountain has passed away.

20-year-old female driver facing several felony charges, including second degree murder & agg assault.

TPD says alcohol played a role, two other pedestrians were also hit. @TucsonNewsNow pic.twitter.com/TimYohUGB5
— Melissa Egan - Tucson News Now (@_MelissaEgan) October 11, 2018

https://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/2018/1...untain-closed/

[Idris Icabod]

This is beyond sad. Im currently in Mexico in a family vacation but was included in the text stream about this. I sat with Rick at Starbucks just a few weeks ago. RIP.

[Matthew]

Terrible. And I won't look for or click on the article because the comment section will likely make my blood boil.

[BobO]

Originally Posted by Idris Icabod

This is beyond sad. Im currently in Mexico in a family vacation but was included in the text stream about this. I sat with Rick at Starbucks just a few weeks ago. RIP.

I had not heard a name yet, Rick who?

Originally Posted by Matthew

Terrible. And I won't look for or click on the article because the comment section will likely make my blood boil.

There's no comment section on the link I posted. But ya, terrible. This is a location where nobody should be going fast enough for anything bad to happen.

[AngryScientist]

Senseless and terrible. Family must be devastated. My sincere condolences to them and the cycling community there.

[soulspinner]

20 and wasted in the AM. wow...so sad..

[Cicli]

Originally Posted by soulspinner

20 and wasted in the AM. wow...so sad..

Sad for her? F! her.

I feel bad for the cyclists family. Tragic and sad.

[froze]

That is terrible, my condolences as well to the family.

But you guys have to know that the lady that killed that guy will get a lawyer and the second degree murder charge will be dropped to either gross vehicular manslaughter while drinking or to vehicular manslaughter. With second degree murder you have to prove that she 1) an intentional killing that is not premeditated or planned, nor committed in a reasonable "heat of passion"; or 2) a killing caused by dangerous conduct and the offender's obvious lack of concern for human life. It's all about intent and I doubt the prosecutor is going to be able to prove intent. All of those things will be tricky to prove in court and most cases involving driving while intoxicated are dropped to lessor charges. If by chance the prosecutor succeeds she's facing a minimum of 10 years.

Gross vehicular manslaughter means she did something really out of line with the law and the prosecutors will have to prove 3 things: one, was she driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs? Check! Two, in acting with gross negligence, did she cause an accident where another person was killed? Check! Third, did she act with gross negligence? This is the tricky one because the prosecutors have to prove that she was driving in an extremely reckless manner, like doing 100 mph at night in a residential area, or blowing through several red lights without any regard to others, weaving in out of traffic at high speeds, or tailgating car after car, it cannot be ordinary negligence that we see all the time, and that one is going to be the toughest battle the prosecutor is going to face, because the defense could say that people drive down one way streets all the time not realizing they did so till they commit, I see people doing that all the time where I live and their not drunk, so that could be a sticky icky that could drop the charge to just vehicular manslaughter, note I said could not would. Also was she over the .08 alcohol limit? more than likely she was so that's a check. All this would carry is a 4 to 10 year sentence, and if it's her first time she'll probably get it reduced to 4 years and with time off for good behavior she might see 2 years.

Depending on the state's law more than likely if this is the persons first offense then the sentence will be reduced to just vehicular manslaughter which carries a one year sentence for first time offenders.

Even with all of that illegal stuff going against her things could go wrong for the prosecutor if her attorney is really good, things like attempts to exclude incriminating evidence, such as test results showing that the defendant was driving with a blood-alcohol level above 0.08. A defense attorney may argue that such evidence should be excluded because it was obtained in violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights, or because law enforcement did not comply with procedures established for collecting the evidence. Or her intoxication was not the legal cause of the accident resulting in death. Instead, a defendant may argue that an independent intervening event outside of the defendant’s control not reasonably foreseeable is the cause of the death instead of the defendant’s intoxication. If any of that occurs or anything else the defense can dream up she could be looking at just a charge of driving under the influence which she could see as little as 30 days and that could be jail or even house arrest, suspension of her drivers license (which is bogus since people will simply drive anyways), and a fine.

Of course she will be subject to a civil lawsuit which depending on her net worth could be quite damaging for her financially, plus a percentage of her wages could be garnished for the rest of her working life. Civil lawsuits are not so easily to reduce as OJ Simpson found out.

Of course I think that the original charges on such cases like this ought to be the one that sticks, the cops tested her, she was for certain taken to a hospital for a blood test and the results agreed with the breath analyzer (I assume anyways), so she should be facing the full punishment with no weird excuses to get out of it, but that's why we are innocent until proven guilty, if we didn't have lessor charges to convict her of if she fails to get charged for the first charge then she could be let go completely and that wouldn't be good either, so those other lessor charges are there to try to catch her on something so she can do the time.

I'm not a lawyer, I got all this information off the internet, so I may be wrong in some of it, and of course each state is different on how they handle cases like this. So maybe a lawyer here, or a law student here can correct most of what I've said.

[soulspinner]

Originally Posted by Cicli

Sad for her? F! her.

I feel bad for the cyclists family. Tragic and sad.

Since you posed a question I will answer it. She obviously has a bad problem to be bombed at 640 am. That is sad in and of itself, and of course its sad for the family and friends of the deceased most importantly.....not sure F! her helps anything.

[sjbraun]

More info on this tragedy here,

https://tucson.com/news/local/tucson...60d015bd0.html

I didn't know Rick, but saw him occasionally at places where cyclists congregate post ride. I have friends who rode with him, at 73 he could fly up hills, easily dropping riders half his age. Everyone I've met who knew him says he was just a fantastic person.

Last night more than 100 people showed up to walk or ride the road where he was killed. A local news story describes the tribute,

https://kvoa.com/news/2018/10/13/doz...-late-cyclist/

[parris]

I wonder what else was in her system in addition to the alcohol. At 20 shes too young to legally drink in the state anyway. Her indifference to human life is disgusting and hopefully the prosecutor has a good case.

[BobO]

Originally Posted by soulspinner

Since you posed a question I will answer it. She obviously has a bad problem to be bombed at 640 am. That is sad in and of itself, and of course its sad for the family and friends of the deceased most importantly.....not sure F! her helps anything.

I don't care about her reasons, I only care about the results of the actions she chose to take. Objectively those actions were criminal and she deserves to be severely punished for those actions. No tolerance, none, F her.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by BobO

I don't care about her reasons, I only care about the results of the actions she chose to take. Objectively those actions were criminal and she deserves to be severely punished for those actions. No tolerance, none, F her.

In some situations the threat of enforcement of the law after a crime has been committed isn't enough to deter criminals.

Sometimes you need to understand why the crime is being committed to have any hope taking actions to deter potential criminals and reducing the crime rate.

[BobO]

Originally Posted by Louis

In some situations the threat of enforcement of the law after a crime has been committed isn't enough to deter criminals.

Sometimes you need to understand why the crime is being committed to have any hope taking actions to deter potential criminals and reducing the crime rate.

That's irrelevant to the point. She is a criminal who took a life, she deserves to be punished severely.

[Cicli]

Originally Posted by BobO

That's irrelevant to the point. She is a criminal who took a life, she deserves to be punished severely.

Agreed. 100%.