Man Sleeping in Car Arrested in Fatal Crash

A man found sleeping in a battered Cadillac was arrested Monday in connection with a hit-and-run accident that killed one woman and severely injured another.

A City Heights businessman called police after he noticed the car parked in front of his nursery. It had a battered hood, smashed windshield, and the driver was passed out behind the wheel.

Officers arrested Bernardino Montecinos, 24, a Mexican citizen who was asleep in his 1974 black Cadillac sedan in the 4800 block of Home Avenue.

The accident occurred at 10:40 p.m. Sunday in the 300 block of 28th Street, about 4 miles southwest of where Montecinos was arrested.

Barbara Jean Rivers, 35, who lives a half block from the accident scene in Logan Heights, was walking across the street with a neighbor when they were struck. Rivers was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sharon Alexander, 30, was in critical condition late Monday at UC San Diego Medical Center. She was treated for two broken legs, two broken arms, fractured ribs and internal injuries, nursing supervisor Sarah Dahlgren said. Police estimated that the car was traveling more than 55 m.p.h. when it hit the women, Dahlgren said.

Bill Tall, the owner of City Farmers Nursery, noticed the car about 7:40 a.m. Monday. He became curious because of front-end damage to the car, a pair of striped boxer shorts lying outside the driver’s side door and the way the car had been parked.

“It was slipped in there nicely against the side of the road,” Tall said. “But it was facing the wrong way.”

Tall said he noticed that a fresh puddle of transmission fluid had leaked from the car, and, as he went to feel if the hood was warm, he saw Montecinos keeled over in the front seat.

Montecinos was being held in County Jail on suspicion of felony manslaughter and hit-and-run driving.