Driver declared mentally competent to face manslaughter charges

OAKLAND >> Nearly four years after he allegedly crashed a car while driving drunk, killing three passengers, a San Leandro man has been found mentally competent to face three vehicular manslaughter counts against him, court records show.

Jaime Africano was 19 in July 2017, when he was arrested and charged in the deaths of Hayward residents Sergio Garcia, 28, and Briana Ortega, 17, as well as Simon Sotelo, 17, of Union City. The charges relate to a crash on Memorial Day weekend of that year, in which Africano allegedly ran a red light and crashed into a minivan.

The driver of the minivan was injured but survived. Africano spent months in the hospital and was released from jail after his arrest.

The case against Africano stalled for years after he was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial and placed in the Napa State Hospital in February 2018. In 2019, a doctor there ruled the facility “wasn’t appropriate and wouldn’t restore” Africano’s competency, but the facility is the only one made available to criminal defendants in Alameda County whose mental competency is called into question, his attorney wrote in court records.

Eventually, at a court hearing last month, Africano was found mentally competent and a judge allowed the criminal case to proceed, court records show.

According to authorities, Africano was speeding through Alameda city streets, at one point reaching 79 in a 25 mph zone the day of the crash. His blood alcohol level allegedly was measured at 0.17%, twice the legal limit of .08%.