CALIFORNIA BRIEFING

By Corina Knoll

Sept. 28, 2009 12 AM PT

Four people riding in a convertible were killed in a car crash in Palmdale, the California Highway Patrol said Sunday.

Stephen Nubani, 22, was driving a gold Audi A4 north on 70th Street East about 10:15 p.m. Saturday when he failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection of 70th and Avenue N, according to a CHP statement. The convertible was struck by a Cadillac Deville that was heading east.

Both vehicles flipped. All four passengers in the Audi were killed.

Nubani, the only victim not wearing a seat belt, was a resident of Hollywood, and the three passengers -- Rylan Jernigan, 18; Araceli Alvarez, 19; and Cesar Chunga, 22 -- were from Palmdale, the CHP statement said.

The Cadillac was driven by Kirk Pitts, 44, of Littlerock, who suffered a broken ankle and femur and was transported to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.

-- Corina Knoll

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Corina Knoll

Corina Knoll is a former reporter for the Metro section of the Los Angeles Times. She was on the team that investigated corruption in Bell — which led to the paper’s 2011 Pulitzer Prize for public service — and went on to cover the trials of the city’s former officials. She later contributed to the paper’s coverage of the San Bernardino terror attack that won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. As a regional reporter, she wrote features about the San Gabriel Valley and the Westside. During her courts beat, she covered high-profile criminal cases and civil disputes, including the Jackson family vs AEG and Bryan Stow vs LA Dodgers. She and two colleagues investigated sheriff’s deputies whose histories of misconduct landed them on the department’s top-secret Brady list. She left The Times in January 2019. Raised in the Midwest, she is a graduate of Macalester College.

CALIFORNIA BRIEFING

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