Drunk driver who killed SJSU student three years ago leads cops on car chase
A drunk driver who hit and killed a San Jose State University student three years ago was arrested last week in another suspected DUI case where he reportedly led Southern California authorities on a car chase in the Coachella Valley.
Soloman David Friese, 24, was arrested June 20 in Desert Hot Springs on suspicion of DUI combining drugs and alcohol, assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer, obstructing a police officer, evading and reckless driving, and violating probation from his previous conviction.
According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, a deputy tried to stop Friese’s car around 7:30 a.m. in Thousand Palms, but the driver instead sped away. He proceeded to lead authorities on a 12-mile chase that paralleled Interstate 10, which ended after Friese reportedly hit another vehicle and then got his car stuck in sand near Dillon Road and Atlantic Avenue.
He was arrested by Palm Desert police. No one was injured in the police pursuit.
Friese was a San Jose State student when his car hit another student crossing South 10th Street in the early-morning hours of Oct. 26, 2014, according to San Jose police. He drove away from the collision site, and later hit a parked vehicle on South Eighth and San Salvador streets.
After that crash, he reportedly ditched the car and went to his apartment nearby. Police caught up to him later that morning, and arrested him.
A day later, the victim, Chi Lam, a 23-year-old engineering student just months from graduation, died from his injuries at a local hospital.
Friese was convicted of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run causing serious injury, and was sentenced to two years in prison and five years of probation.
He is currently being held in the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Riverside County, where he is being held without bail due to the probation violation. He is next scheduled to appear in court July 5.