TEMECULA WOMAN, 23, GETS PRISON FOR FATAL HEAD-ON CRASH THAT KILLED THE OTHER DRIVER
VISTA
A Temecula woman was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison for causing a head-on crash that killed another driver in Pala this year.
Alyssa Thielemann, 23, pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while under the influence of prescription medication in the collision that killed Paula Napoli, 43, of Winchester, and injured Napoli’s passenger.
Authorities said Thielemann was driving a Toyota Prius, headed east on state Route 76 east of Adams Road about 10:30 p.m. Jan. 2, when she crossed the double yellow lines and crashed into an oncoming Infinity sedan.
Napoli, the Infinity driver, was taken to the Pala fire station, where she died. Her passenger was taken to a hospital for treatment of moderate injuries.
Deputy District Attorney David Uyar said a witness reported that Thielemann had been passing cars on the left using the opposing lane.
Thielemann was injured in the crash. She was subsequently booked into jail, where she has remained while the case was pending.
The six-year sentence was the result of a plea deal struck by attorneys in the case.
Judge Robert Kearney said that based on the totality of the circumstances, it was an appropriate sentence.
During Thielemann’s sentencing hearing, Napoli’s teenage daughter — an only child — spoke of her heartbreak at the loss of her mother, who as a single mom was her best friend. For years, she said, it was just the two of them.
“Alyssa, you may not know me,” the teen said to Thielemann, “but I know you. Your name keeps me up every night. You haunt me in my sleep. You took away the light of my life, my inspiration.”
“Every day something happens and I run to go tell my mom about it and I can’t because she is dead. Because of you,” the teen later said.
She said her mother, a cosmetologist, “could beat anyone, and I mean anyone, at Guitar Hero. She was a darts master. She loved crystals and astrology. She was a Capricorn. She wrote poems and songs. We went camping every other weekend for years. ... She loved cats and staying up all night talking about the world.”