MAN’S SENTENCE FOR DUI CRASH REDUCED UNDER NEW STATE LAW

A man who received 15 years to life in prison in 2021 for a DUI crash that killed one of his passengers was resentenced Wednesday to just 15 years behind bars under a new state law that increases the discretion of judges during sentencings.

It was a difficult choice, El Cajon Superior Court Judge Roderick Shelton said from the bench — and a choice he wouldn’t have had about a year ago.

In October 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 518, which revised Penal Code section 654. The law had required that when a crime was punishable in different ways by different laws, the one that came with the longest prison term be chosen.

For Rene Ruiz, that meant murder. The now 31year-old was arrested in 2018 after crashing on state Route 94 in Spring Valley. Melanie Alexandra Feliciano, who was either sitting on the car’s center console or sharing the front passenger seat with another woman, was gravely injured, officials said. Ruiz — who was on “toxic levels of (methamphetamine)” and unprescribed Xanax — fled the crash with the other passenger, prosecutors said.

In October 2021, a jury found Ruiz guilty of seconddegree murder, gross vehicular manslaughter and DUI causing injuries, officials said.

The old rules required that Ruiz be sentenced under the murder charge. But Newsom’s amendment — which went into effect in January 2022 — made it so the court could choose to impose a sentence under any the laws involved in the case.

On Wednesday, Judge Shelton decided sentencing Ruiz under the manslaughter charge was most appropriate.

“This was not an easy case for the court,” Shelton said.

It’s a decision Ruiz’s public defender, John O’Connell agreed with.

O’Connell argued in court that there were several reasons his client’s sentence should be reduced to manslaughter. He noted that Ruiz had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after experiencing childhood traumas that involved seeing two of his friends getting shot — one of whom died.

This and other experiences led to gang involvement — which he eventually distanced himself from — and a long battle with substance abuse, O’Connell said.

He said Ruiz has been attending a drug treatment program while in prison.

“He does feel responsible for what happened in this case, and he’s very remorseful about what happened,” O’Connell said.

Deputy District Attorney Laura Evans disagreed with the new sentence. She pointed to Ruiz’s long criminal history, which stretched back to his time as a juvenile and included another DUI conviction. Evans said Ruiz had multiple opportunities over the years to get sober, but instead he continued using drugs.

“I think courts really need to look to both the defendant and also the public’s interests, society’s interests,” Evans said. “That’s why my position in this case was that the 15 to life sentence should remain because Melanie was killed for no other reason than this defendant’s behavior.”

Evans said Ruiz is the first person to be resentenced under the new law.