No charges filed yet in February 2016 fatal accident
It’s been nearly a year and a half since Beatrice Arellano’s husband was killed in a head-on collision with a suspected reckless and drunken driver. In addition to coping with the loss, Arellano is dealing with what she says is a lack of justice.
The driver of the other car, Gabriel John Benjamin Hirshkorn Solis, 25, Yuba City, has not been charged in the February 2016 accident that killed Antonio Adan Vargas Acevedo, 59, also of Yuba City.
“Since the beginning, they’re always giving excuses,” Arellano said Friday.
The collision occurred around 6:30 p.m., Arellano said, when her husband was getting gas. He had an early-morning commute to work in San Francisco the next day. She said she wasn’t notified there’d been an accident until around 11 p.m.
Sutter County Undersheriff Jeff Pierce confirmed Thursday the department sent over its investigation findings to the District Attorney’s Office and requested a manslaughter prosecution on May 16, 2016. The DA has yet to file charges.
When queried about why charges haven’t been filed, Deputy District Attorney Adam McBride replied in an email Friday that the office will be filing charges against Solis “very soon,” and he can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.
According to Appeal-Democrat archives, moments before the fatal collision, Solis was seen reportedly running a red light at Lincoln Road and Walton Avenue, and driving in the bike lane to pass vehicles on the right. Several travelers called the department to report the reckless driver.
Another witness told deputies Solis was traveling about 70 mph eastbound on Lincoln Road near Mesa Verde when he cut in front of another vehicle and smashed into Acevedo, who was driving a gold Toyota. Deputies believed Solis was intoxicated, according to the archives.
Solis was hospitalized in critical condition at UC Davis Medical Centers for days following the collision.
When asked why Solis was never arrested, Pierce said Thursday that Solis was hospitalized and the investigation wasn’t complete. Pierce also said that sometimes the department relies on the decision of the DA to serve a warrant and make an arrest.
Solis did not respond to a Facebook request for comment.
Arellano said the past 16 months has affected her both emotionally and financially – as her husband was the sole source of income. She said she cannot work because their two children are special needs, one needing 24-hour care.
She said she is disappointed in the lack of justice for her husband of 25 years.
“It wasn’t a dog that was killed, it was a person,” Arellano said. “He was a good person, a good husband, a good dad.”