Driver in fatal crash sentenced to prison term
The 51-year-old man who was convicted at trial of killing another driver early last year in a crash near Somerton has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. The man also received a term of post-release supervision.
The sentencing, which was originally scheduled for Aug. 18 but changed to July 20, was held before Superior Court Judge David Haws, who also gave Jose Luis Tapia-Fierro credit for 476 days he has already served while being held at the Yuma County jail.
Tapia-Fierro, who was in the country illegally at the time of the crash, was initially charged with seconddegree murder but was found guilty of the lesser included offense of manslaughter after a three-day trial in June for causing the death of Alfonso Abarca-Garcia.
The jury, which deliberated for less than an hour, also found that it was a dangerous-nature offense, which carries a minimum sentence of seven years and a maximum of 21 years, with the presumptive, or usual, sentence being 10 1/2 years.
Jurors came to the decision after hearing two days of testimony that included witnesses, the sheriff deputies who investigated the wreck and an expert on the effects of alcohol on the blood stream.
This isn’t the first time Tapia-Fierro has been convicted of a dangerousnature offense. In April of 1999, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Stanislaus County Superior Court in California for fatally stabbing someone with a knife.
He has also two other previous convictions, one for possession of a dangerous weapon — a sawed off shotgun and battery of a spouse or cohabitant, both from 1997 in California. The prosecution used these previous conviction as an aggravating factor to increase the length of Tapia-Fierro’s sentence from the presumptive 10 1/2 years he was to get to the 15 years he received.
During the sentencing, prosecutor Yancy Garner of the Yuma County Attorney’s Office argued for an aggravated sentence, citing Tapia-Fierro’s criminal history, that he had taken another life and his high blood alcohol content level of .144 at the time of the crash.
Likewise the prosecution also argued that the severe crush damage to the victim’s vehicle was indicative of Tapia-Fierro’s high rate of speed. In trial, photos were shown of the severity of the crush damage.
Tapia-Fierro had Tboned the victim’s vehicle and pushed the passenger’s side of the door past the center line of vehicle. One photograph presented by the state at trial showed the victim’s arm hanging out of what was left of the passenger’s door while he was still belted into the driver’s seat.
At trial, the state presented evidence that the Tapia-Fierro did not try to stop or swerve.
However, attorney Jerry Hernandez of the Yuma County Public Defender’s Office, who represented Tapia-Fierro, countered by arguing that the prosecution had only proven a speed of 60 mph and that his blood alcohol content was not that high, and that there was a possibility that the victim was traveling the unlit highway without his lights on.
In rendering his decision, Judge Haws cited that Tapia-Fierro had failed to stop at a stop sign and that he ignored a posted warning sign of “stop sign ahead.”
According to the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office, at 3:10 a.m. on March 31, 2017, deputies received a report of a vehicle collision on County 14th Street and Avenue G, near Somerton.
An initial investigation revealed that a 1998 Ford van was northbound on Avenue G when the vehicle was struck by a 2012 Nissan pickup traveling west on County 14th Street. The Nissan pickup had failed to stop at the posted stop sign on County 14th Street and Avenue G.
The driver of the Ford van, Abarca-Garcia, was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Nissan, Tapia-Fierro, who deputies said had been drinking before the crash, was transported to Yuma Regional Medical Center for injuries that were not life-threatening and later arrested.