SIMI VALLEY : Man Gets 11 Years in Fatal Car Accident

A man who had at least seven previous drunk-driving convictions was sentenced Wednesday to the maximum term of nearly 11 years for vehicular manslaughter in connection with the death of a 54-year-old Simi Valley man.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath handed down the sentence to Michael Rodriguez, 39, who struck and killed Raphael Lachmiller as Lachmiller walked to his family’s house on Whitcomb Avenue.

“It was a pretty aggravated case as far as his past record goes,” said Rodriguez’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Bryant Fitzpatrick. “He was kind of expecting the worse. I had pretty much prepped him that things could happen as they did.”

The judge sentenced Rodriguez to the maximum term of 10 years and eight months, as five members of the victim’s family, including his wife and brother, had asked.

McGrath cited Rodriguez’s prior drunk-driving convictions and the circumstances of Lachmiller’s death, Fitzpatrick said.

The accident occurred April 15, after Rodriguez first hit several parked cars and slammed into Lachmiller as he was trying to flee, police said.

At his arraignment two weeks later, Rodriguez entered an early guilty plea to spare the victim’s family from having to relive Lachmiller’s death through a trial, Fitzpatrick said.

Rodriguez last year was convicted of hit-and-run and driving under the influence in two separate cases, prosecutors said.