Driver in Fatal Crash Pleads No Contest
A Ventura motorist who touched off an accident that killed a 3-year-old girl when he used the rocky median of California 126 to pass another car pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter Wednesday.
Paul Andrew Callahan, 51, faces a year in jail when he is sentenced next month.
A no-contest plea is equivalent to a guilty plea, but cannot be used against a defendant in civil law proceedings.
Jazmin Perez was thrown from the cab of a pickup truck and crushed to death when the vehicle her mother was driving rolled over on her Nov. 29. Belinda Revelez, 22, of Oxnard and Jazmin’s 13-year-old uncle, Danny Perez, were injured in the three-vehicle accident.
Prosecutors charged Callahan with starting the chain-reaction accident. Callahan lost control of his car on the median and collided with a car driven by Melodee Anderson, 32, of Santa Paula. Anderson’s car collided with Revelez’s truck, forcing it off the highway about two miles east of Ventura.
Callahan and Anderson escaped injury. After investigating the case, prosecutors declined to charge Anderson and Revelez.
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