Orange : Murder Charges Added in Drunk Driving Case

The district attorney’s office filed second-degree murder charges Monday against a suspected drunk driver who allegedly ran a stop sign in Orange and killed two people in another car last month.

Gonzalo De Rosa Garcia, 25, of Orange was originally charged with vehicular manslaughter, but prosecutors added two second-degree murder charges Monday in Municipal Court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard King said.

King amended the criminal complaint against Garcia to also include grand theft of an automobile after the California Highway Patrol concluded an “exhaustive” investigation of the Dec. 21 incident, he said.

“These new charges were based on the facts and circumstances surrounding the investigation,” said King, who would not elaborate on the CHP’s findings.

If Garcia is found guilty, he could face a maximum sentence of 30 years to life imprisonment, King said.

Garcia’s arraignment was continued to Jan. 16. He is being held in Orange County Jail. Bail is set at $250,000.

The new charges against Garcia stem from the deaths of Norma Grossi, 42, of Anaheim, and Javier Valdez, 45, of Orange, both of whom died of injuries in the car crash. Garcia also is charged with felony reckless driving and driving under the influence.

Witnesses told CHP investigators they saw Garcia speeding in a pickup truck on a sidewalk, uprooting trees and bushes, about 7 p.m. the day of the accident before he struck a car driven by Grossi’s husband, Fernando Grossi, 47, who was injured but survived.

Garcia was allegedly driving a stolen pickup in a “wild melee” that included an earlier collision with another vehicle and extensive property damage in a quiet residential neighborhood in the El Modena section of Orange, the CHP said.

A resident reported a reckless driver to Orange police, but when Garcia noticed an approaching police car, he “accelerated away rapidly,” running through the stop sign at Center and Hewes streets, where he collided with the vehicle driven by Grossi, the CHP said.