Victims’ family disappointed by drunk driver’s sentence
The attorney who represents the family of two people killed in a drunk driving accident in 2017 said he, his clients and the prosecution were all surprised and disappointed by the lenient sentence the driver received Wednesday morning in Yuma County Superior Court.
“It is shocking and outrageous. It is really hard to justify this type of sentence,” Phoenix attorney David Penilla said after Nathan Sanford Morales was given a 10 1/2-year prison term. “I have spoken with my client and he says he feels victimized again.”
Morales, who just turned 29, pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter in April, with each charge carrying a prison sentence that ranged from seven to 21 years with a presumptive sentence of 10 1/2 years. There were also no stipulations within the plea as to whether the sentences were to be served consecutively or concurrently.
In return for Morales’ guilty plea, two counts of second-degree murder, six counts of aggravated assault, and one count each of extreme DUI, endangerment and reckless driving against him were dismissed.
Penilla explained that the prosecutors, who were from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, had recommended a 21-year sentence, while the Yuma County Probation Department had sought 30 years. The family, however, was hoping for the maximum sentence of 42 years.
Saying it was a tragic case and something that should never have happened, Superior Court Judge David Haws, who presided over the case, sentenced Morales to 10 1/2 years in prison, with credit for 91 days already served, for each of the manslaughter charges. He also ordered that the sentences be served concurrently, meaning Morales would serve them both at the same time.
“This sentence is really an insult to the victims and the deceased alike,” Penilla said, adding that such a lenient sentence does nothing to discourage drunk driving.
Morales was arraigned on the charges on April 24, 2018, after receiving a grand jury summons to appear.
The charges stem from a crash that occurred Dec. 14, 2017. According to records, at about 6:50 p.m., the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a two-vehicle collision at the intersection of West County 18th Street and South Somerton Avenue.
The initial investigation revealed that a silver 2014 Chevrolet Silverado was traveling west on County 18th Street and failed to stop at the intersection of County 18th Street and Somerton Avenue, where it collided with a gold 2007 Toyota Sequoia that had been traveling north on Somerton Avenue.
YCSO’s Critical Accident Response Team and the Criminal Investigation Bureau responded to the scene and began an investigation.
The driver of the Toyota Sequoia, Doraly Correa of Somerton, 41, was on her way home after getting her nails done when they were T-boned by Morales, who failed to yield at the fourway stop marked by flashing red lights at County 18th, while driving his Chevy Silverado pickup.
The impact of the collision sent the Sequoia flying 151 feet across the road, leading to an estimate that Morales had been driving 97 mph.
Both vehicles caught on fire, and more lives might have been lost if it wasn’t for a group of agricultural workers and an off-duty corrections officer who rescued victims from the burning vehicles.
Correa was transported by the San Luis Fire Department to Yuma Regional Medical Center, where she succumbed to her injuries. Her 6-year-old son was taken to YRMC by the Somerton/Cocopah Fire Department and later flown to a Phoenix-area hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Two female juvenile passengers were also transported to YRMC and flown out to a Phoenix-area hospital and treated there.
Morales said earlier in the day he had played 18 holes at Desert Hills Golf Course in Yuma with his father and his brother-in-law, who was also his boss at the time. As they played, he drank “probably five beers on the front nine.”
His blood alcohol content after the crash was recorded as 0.16%, according to the prosecution.