Man charged with murder in collision
BRAWLEY — A 35-year-old Bakersfield man suspected of driving under the influence has been charged with murder in connection to a 2018 collision in Calipatria that left a pedestrian dead.
Jerrod Hinton King also faces three other felony counts stemming from the May 29, 2018, incident that left a 67-year-old Indio man dead.
During a preliminary setting hearing on Tuesday, King’s defense attorney asked a county Superior Court judge for a continuance in the case.
King, who remains out on bail and did not attend Tuesday’s hearing at the courthouse here, is scheduled to be back in court Sept. 10, for a pretrial setting.
He is alleged to have been driving his vehicle at an unknown rate of speed southbound on Gentry Road toward Lindsey Road when he struck a man who had exited his tractor-trailer that was parked on Gentry facing north near the intersection, a California Highway Patrol accident report stated.
The deceased, identified in the court complaint as Rafael Cordova Calixtro, reportedly had stopped to ask somebody directions and was walking back toward his vehicle when King allegedly struck the big-rig and then him, the CHP report stated.
King was arrested at the scene and subsequently arraigned on three felony counts, including driving under the influence of alcohol while causing an injury, driving with a blood alcohol content above 0.08 while causing an injury, and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, court records stated.
On June 18, the county District Attorney’s Office filed an amended complaint, adding the second-degree murder charge.
The DUI-related second-degree murder charge is known as a “Watson murder” charge, and does not require that a defendant be found guilty of expressed malice, the DA’s Office reported.
Generally speaking, the charge is also typically brought against defendants who have a prior DUI conviction and who understand that driving under the influence can cause the loss of life, the DA’s Office reported.
Cordova had reportedly died at the scene as a result of the blunt force injuries he sustained after allegedly being struck by King’s vehicle, the CHP accident report stated.
After King’s vehicle allegedly struck Cordova, King lost control of the vehicle and veered onto the west dirt shoulder of Gentry, eventually struck two utility poles and overturned near a canal bank on the road’s west side, CHP reported.
The force of the impact from King’s vehicle sheared the second utility pole at its bottom, the CHP accident report stated.