Defendant Gets 14 Years for Manslaughter

An ex-convict who led police on a drunken, high-speed chase that resulted in the traffic death of a Simi Valley grandfather was ordered Tuesday to serve 14 years in state prison.

The sentence was the maximum allowed under California law, but provided little comfort to the family of motorist Bill Kremper.

A 69-year-old retired aerospace engineer, Kremper was killed June 17 when his car was struck from behind as Luis Acuna Estrada, who used the alias Luis Espinosa Rodriguez, tried to flee police at speeds exceeding 100 mph.

“He should have gotten more,” cried widow Geri Kremper in the courthouse hallway after the hearing.

Daughters Linda Moon of Porterville and Kathleen Todd of Simi Valley spoke on behalf of their mother during the sentencing, explaining her heart was weak and might not hold up during such an emotional hearing.

“We’ve already lost one,” Moon said of her parents.

Estrada, 38, pleaded guilty last month to three charges stemming from the incident--vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, auto theft and willful flight from a pursuing officer that resulted in death.

The guilty plea earned Estrada no leniency from Ventura County Superior Court Judge Edward F. Brodie.

A former CHP officer, Brodie recalled similar incidents he investigated before becoming a judge and told the victim’s family such crimes are among the most painful because they are so senseless.

“There is no reason for this to happen,” he said. “Your father and your husband sounded just like my dad . . . and I know the loss I would feel if he were taken in an accident just like this.”

Turning to Estrada, who authorities described as a transient, Brodie cited a lengthy criminal record including three prior prison sentences for auto theft and burglary. An illegal immigrant, Estrada was deported to Mexico after each prison term, only to return.

“He’s probably stolen more cars than most people own in a lifetime,” the judge said, adding that he expected Estrada would continue the pattern once he is released in 14 years.

Brodie told the Kremper family he wished the state Legislature gave him more flexibility to hand down a harsher sentence. But he explained 14 years was the most prison time he could impose.

Outside the courtroom after the hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bernardo Gonzales said he was pleased with the sentence.

Deputy Public Defender Bill Rutan had asked the judge for leniency for his client, stressing Estrada’s guilty plea at an early stage of the court proceedings and his expressed remorse for Kremper’s death.

Gonzales, however, argued that Estrada in years past has used numerous aliases to commit crimes across the state. He was intoxicated at the time of the crash, and tried to elude police in a car stolen in Thousand Oaks that he drove at dangerously high speeds, the prosecutor said.

“This was truly more egregious than what you typically find in vehicular manslaughter cases,” he said.

In addressing the court, Kremper’s daughters spoke more about their father’s zest for life--his big hugs and sloppy kisses, his trademark plum dumplings and love of family--than their own desires to avenge his death.

Moon read a letter from her older sister, Sharon Schwartz. Just days before Kremper died, Schwartz of Virginia had shipped a Father’s Day gift to her dad.

Instead of wishing him well that Sunday, however, she kissed him goodbye at a mortuary.

“On that day, I wanted to see his eyes,” Schwartz wrote. “My father was the heart and soul of our family and his eyes said it all.”

After setting down the letter, Moon began to sob. She told Brodie her family is overcome by grief and angry that their father’s killer would eventually be released from prison.

“[Our father] didn’t deserve to be taken from us like this,” she said. “He was a good man.”