Man charged with vehicular manslaughter and more in 3 girls’ deaths

The suspected driver in a hit-and-run crash in Santa Ana that killed three girls on Halloween night was charged Tuesday with three counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, prosecutors announced.

Jaquinn Bell, 31, of Orange, was also charged with misdemeanor driving on a suspended license and sentencing enhancements of inflicting great bodily injury and fleeing the scene of a crime after committing manslaughter.

Bell is being held on $1-million bail, and faces as long as 17 years in prison if convicted, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Handcuffed and dressed in a jail-issued jumpsuit, Bell was shown on video from his jail cell during the brief hearing. He did not speak, and showed little emotion.

Defense attorney Robert Hickey, who said he had represented Bell in the past and may again be retained to represent him, said it was premature to discuss the case. Asked about Bell, he said: “He’s upset, rightfully so.”

Police said that Bell was driving with his two teen children when he struck twin sisters Lexia and Lexandra Perez and their friend Andrea Gonzalez. The girls, who were crossing the road at Old Grand Street and Fairhaven Avenue about 6:45 p.m., died at the scene.

Investigators said they later found the suspected car, a Honda CR-V, abandoned in the parking lot of a nearby Big Lots store.

Bell was arrested Sunday outside a Motel 6 in Stanton.

Santa Ana police said they initially detained Bell’s mother and half-sister and took his two children into protective custody, but subsequently released everyone but Bell.

Bell’s criminal record dates to at least 2009, when he was convicted of domestic violence. Since then, court records show, his probation has been revoked seven times, with Bell typically receiving short jail terms or ordered to attend substance-abuse and child-endangerment treatment programs.

In August, Bell was convicted of hit and run and drunken driving, and his license was suspended in early October. Police said he was driving with his children at the time of that incident.

John Dunton, speaking after the court hearing on behalf of Gonzalez’s family, said the family would request that the city install a traffic light at the crosswalk where their daughter was killed so “so it won’t happen again.”

Dunton said the girl’s family blames the judges — not prosecutors or the police — “for being too easy on the defendant” in the past.

“The judges need to be a little more hard on crime,” Dunton said. “If he would have been in jail, these victims would have been alive today.”

Bell’s arraignment was postponed until Dec. 16.

emily.foxhall@latimes.com

joseph.serna@latimes.com