Charge Against Father in Fatal Crash Dismissed
At the request of prosecutors who believed the man had suffered enough, a judge Tuesday dismissed a manslaughter charge against a father whose 6-year-old son died in a car accident because he was not wearing his seat belt.
Municipal Court Judge Alan Rosenfield dismissed the charge against Walter G. Sylvia Jr., 49, of Malibu, on a motion filed by the district attorney’s office.
Sylvia will still be prosecuted on charges of driving with a suspended license, a misdemeanor, and violating the state’s seat belt law, an infraction. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Municipal Court on Oct. 25.
Sylvia’s son, Michael, was killed Aug. 8 when he was thrown from the open passenger window of his father’s 1983 Honda, which overturned on Soledad Canyon Road north of Aqua Dulce Canyon Road in the Santa Clarita Valley.
Sylvia had been charged with manslaughter, which carries a one-year jail sentence.
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