Victim Was Caltrans Employee : Drunk Driver Avoids Prison Term

A 21-year-old man who killed a Caltrans worker while driving drunk last March was spared a prison term Tuesday by a Vista Superior Court judge who ruled that society would be better served by placing the defendant on probation.

Joseph Machado of Fallbrook was told by Presiding Judge Anthony Joseph to spend a year in the county jail system--less 139 days’ credit for time already served in prison for evaluation and good behavior--to be followed by five years’ probation.

Among the terms of probation were that Machado give up his driver’s license for the five years and that he not drink.

Joseph had the option of sending Machado, who previously had pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, to state prison for a maximum of six years. The San Diego County district attorney’s office asked that Machado be sentenced to four years, but both the county Probation Department and a team of diagnostic experts from the state Department of Corrections had recommended probation instead of prison time.

Joseph allowed two people to speak before he passed sentence--the district construction engineer for the state Department of Transportation, and a representative of the victim’s family--both of whom were unsympathetic toward Machado.

Had Not Volunteered

Victor Lind of Caltrans said the victim, 30-year-old David Hoffman, had not volunteered for the night construction work along Interstate 5 in Oceanside when he was struck and killed by Machado, who had crossed over into lanes closed for repaving work.

“The driver of the vehicle did have a choice--and he chose to drink and drive,” Lind said. He said the incident has had a “profound effect” on Caltrans highway workers, who “question whether they want to be exposed to this kind of work.”

Marlene Granfors, saying she was speaking on behalf of Hoffman’s widow, Kathleen, asked that Machado be “punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

But Machado’s defense attorney, Richard Mills, said that philosophical arguments notwithstanding, “it doesn’t appear that a real good legal argument can be made for prison.”

And he contended that Caltrans should bear some of the blame for not better protecting its night construction crews with additional lighting.

“There were no signs, no barriers, but only little yellow cones,” Mills said. He also noted that Hoffman was atop an automobile-sized machine that had no lights or reflectors on it.

Ran Over Traffic Cone

Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg McClain countered that Machado apparently ran over one of the traffic cones as he drifted over into the closed lane, and that he passed three other Caltrans workers who were wearing reflective vests as well as a Caltrans truck with its lights on before he struck Hoffman.

“There’s no question in the (prosecution’s) mind that Mr. Machado would be a fine candidate for probation,” McClain said. “But it’s not a question of whether Mr. Machado is a good guy or a bad guy. It’s a question of what he did the night of the incident.”

Joseph noted that, if he sent Machado to prison for four years, he likely would be out in half that time and be on parole for less than a year, and that he would in fact be under the system’s control longer if not sentenced to prison.

Machado was quoted in a probation report as saying: “I am terribly sorry for what I did. I wish I could change what happened that night, but obviously I can’t. I know what kind of pain I’ve caused for the victim’s family. It is something I’ll have to live with the rest of my life.”

Kathleen Hoffman did not attend Tuesday’s sentencing but told a probation officer: “Machado was under (the legal drinking) age, and he was driving while drunk. He knew exactly what he was doing. His actions have changed my life forever. My son will never know his father.”