Driver Pleads Guilty to Murder in Fatal Crash, Gets 10 Years

Gonzalo Garcia, who killed two people when he drove a stolen truck into a car during a police chase in Orange County, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday after he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.

The families of the two victims had been placed in the unusual position of siding with the defendant in his unsuccessful attempts to persuade prosecutors to reduce the charges to vehicular manslaughter. Their lawyers told the court they believed the families had a better chance of collecting insurance money if it was not a murder case.

After the sentencing, Garcia turned to courtroom spectators and, in Spanish, told Fernando Grossi, husband of one of the victims and driver of the car, that he was sorry.

“ Vaya con Dios ( May God go with you),” Grossi answered.

The standard sentence for second-degree murder is 15 years to life in prison, and two counts could have meant a sentence of almost 33 years.

Prosecutors refused to reduce the charges to manslaughter. But Garcia decided to plead guilty after Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas indicated he might shorten the possible sentence to 10 years, as if it were for two counts of vehicular manslaughter.

Trying to Elude Police

Garcia, now 28, was attempting to elude the Orange police when he ran a stop sign in the El Modena area Dec. 21, 1986, striking Grossi’s car.

Garcia is accused of murder in the deaths of Javier Valdez, 45, of Orange, and Fernando Grossi’s wife, Norma, 42, of Anaheim. Both were passengers in Fernando Grossi’s car. He was injured and still suffers pain in his badly scarred right arm.

The case may not be over yet. Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard M. King--who left the courtroom pleased with the murder plea but unhappy about the sentence--said his office is going to study a transcript of the two days of hearings to determine whether to try to overturn Cardenas’ decision in the Court of Appeal. King claims that Cardenas does not have the authority to reduce a sentence on a murder guilty plea to less than 15-years-to-life.

“It was an honest decision by the judge, but we disagree,” King said. “The aggravating circumstances of what happened make it much, much more than a manslaughter.”

King also claimed that Garcia’s attitude toward the victims after his arrest was different from his remorseful courtroom demeanor. King reminded the court that Garcia had told the police, “It was their time,” when he was told that two people had been killed.

Expert on Stand

Grossi told the court Thursday how tragic the loss had been for his family. But he also said it was up to the court--not him--to determine what Garcia’s punishment should be. When Grossi added that he hoped Garcia could be rehabilitated, the judge responded that in California, the primary goal of sentencing is punishment, not rehabilitation.

The Grossi family and a son of Javier Valdez are pursuing a civil court lawsuit in an attempt to collect insurance.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, Prosecutor King put his own expert on the stand to show that it makes no difference for insurance purposes whether it is a murder case or a manslaughter case.

But the lawyers for the two families claim that a settlement with whatever insurance companies might be involved would be improved if the case was officially labeled as manslaughter.

Vehicular manslaughter would mean that Garcia’s actions were negligent, they claim, while second-degree murder would mean his actions were an intentional disregard for human life.

It is still unclear which insurance companies are involved. The owner of the stolen truck has a different insurance company than the owner of the yard where the truck was stolen. King calls the insurance issue a red herring raised by the defense. He pointed to the testimony and statements of the two families’ lawyers that it was Deputy Public Defender James S. Egar, Garcia’s attorney, who kept raising the insurance issue with them.