Driver Faces Multiple Charges in Road Death

A 29-year-old Santa Ana man was being held Sunday on suspicion of vehicular homicide, drunk driving and hit and run after swerving into a motorcycle rider on the freeway and then trying hide the crime by filing a bogus car theft report, authorities said.

Jose Luis Guillen was arrested Sunday as the suspected killer of Andrea Giordano, a 35-year-old Long Beach man who was knocked from his Kawasaki motorcycle about 12:30 a.m. on the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway, according to a California Highway Patrol officer.

Guillen was driving home from a party in the freeway’s carpool lane when he abruptly swerved across four lanes to avoid passing the Edinger Avenue offramp, the exit closest to his home, CHP Officer Mike Lundquist said. Investigators estimate he was going 70 to 90 miles an hour, he said.

Investigators believe Giordano was driving in the lane closest to the offramp when he was hit and that he died instantly, Lundquist said.

About 45 minutes after the crash, Guillen called Costa Mesa police to report his truck had been stolen, Lundquist said. A few hours later, Santa Ana police found the truck, a red 1994 Dodge Ram with collision damage, about half a mile from Guillen’s home, Lundquist said.

Guillen was arrested and questioned, and police believe he phoned his brother in Costa Mesa following the crash and returned to the site of the party to report the truck had been stolen, Lundquist said.