Local News in Brief : 2 Killed in Crash Were Drunk, Coroner Says

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has confirmed that two minors who were allegedly drinking at the Ramada Inn in Agoura Hills shortly before dying in a car crash were under the influence of alcohol.

Michelle Sinclair, 18, of Thousand Oaks and Michael Holcomb, 20, of Moorpark were killed March 18 when their car smashed into a utility pole on Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Agoura Hills. Matthew Tupin, 20, of Westlake Village received minor injuries.

A driver’s license belonging to a 24-year-old man was found in Holcomb’s wallet, and police received tips that the trio had been drinking at the Ramada Inn, said Sgt. Kevin Mauch of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He would not say if the license had been stolen or whose name was on it.

The coroner’s tests showed that Holcomb, the car’s driver, had a blood alcohol level of 0.11%, Deputy Coroner Bob Dambacher said. The amount of alcohol in Sinclair’s blood was 0.13%, he said. California law presumes that a person is drunk when his blood alcohol level exceeds 0.10%.