Man dies in 3-vehicle crash after colliding into vehicle head-on

A man died Wednesday on Highway 119 in a three-vehicle crash that also sent two people to the hospital with major injuries.

California Highway Patrol officers went to Highway 119, east of Coles Levee, at 5:25 a.m. and learned Joel Frakes, 45, was going east while Mario Bernardino Argil, 46, was going west in opposite lanes.

Frakes, for unknown reasons, veered into westbound lanes and hit Bernardino Argil’s Ford F250 and then collided head-on into a GMC 1500, CHP wrote. The driver of the GMC 1500, who was only identified by CHP as a 56-year-old Bakersfield man, died at the scene.

His identity will be released by the Kern County coroner’s office.

Drugs and alcohol didn’t factor into this crash, but the investigation is ongoing, CHP said. Anyone with information is asked to call the CHP Buttonwillow office at 661-794-5580.

A man has been charged with having hundreds of LSD pills and other drugs to sell them at the Lightning in a Bottle music festival.

Undercover California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control officers were at the Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational area on Friday when they “negotiated” a sale with Jamie Jack Sterling inside the grounds, according to a search warrant filed in Kern County Superior Court and retrieved Tuesday.

Two agents bought 1 ounce of DMT, 10 LSD tablets and one chocolate bar infused with psilocybin mushrooms for $160, according to the search warrant. Sterling offered the agents more drugs that were in his van, the document said.

The officers arrested Sterling and served a search warrant to comb through his van.

It yielded more than 450 red suspected LSD tablets, 2.2 grams of DMT, at least 23 chocolate bars infused with psilocybin mushrooms, suspected MDMA and other suspected drugs, according to the search warrant.

Sterling was charged with two felonies: possessing narcotics for sale and transporting drugs. He’s due June 9 for his pre-preliminary hearing after pleading not guilty at his arraignment.

A Bakersfield police officer shot a man Wednesday at a gas station after he struck the driver’s side of a patrol car, and was taken to the hospital in stable condition, the Bakersfield Police Department reported.

Officers attempted to “contact” a vehicle with two men, who are suspects in an ongoing narcotics trafficking investigation, at an am/pm in the 900 block of Monterey Street, according to police.

That’s when the suspect hit a patrol car and an officer shot the driver, a news release said. The second suspect was arrested. No officers were injured.

BPD said the officers were equipped with body-worn cameras and that footage will be made available to the public. Witnesses are being interviewed.

BPD didn’t release the names of the suspects or the officers connected to the shooting. The department noted those details would be released later.

The officer who fired his gun has been put on paid administrative leave.

Anyone with more information about this incident is asked to call BPD at 661-327-7111.