Driver Pleads Guilty in Bicyclist’s Death
Only minutes before he was to go on trial, John Tupeona Tago, 26, of Wilmington pleaded guilty Friday to felony hit-run and misdemeanor manslaughter in Torrance Superior Court.
According to police, last March 24 Tago ran a red light and broadsided Jorge Rodelo, 24, who was riding a bicycle across Torrance Boulevard. After dragging the bicycle for 100 feet, Tago stopped to jerk the bicycle away from his car then sped off, a witness said.
Rodelo, a Mexican immigrant, juggled going to school with working two jobs to earn money to support his family in Mexico.
Tago said in an interview before entering his plea that the death “is going to stay with me for a long time.”
He faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison at his sentencing before Judge George Perkovich Nov. 16.
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