Mother Succumbs to Wounds From Fiery Tustin Accident

Angela Carla Howard, the mother of two young boys killed in a fiery car crash in Tustin two weeks ago, died while in skin-graft surgery Tuesday, Tustin police said.

“I had just gone in and said a prayer by her bed today,” said Wenonah Sheehan, her mother-in-law. “It didn’t work.”

The 24-year-old woman had been at UCI Medical Center in Orange since the crash that killed her 4-month-old son, Jerrod Damon Perry, and 4-year-old stepson, David Alexander Loera. Angela’s husband and the boys’ father, Perry Howard, remains in critical condition with burns over 40% of his body.

“How do I put one foot in front of another?” asked Sheehan, who is Perry’s mother. “It was hard enough losing the kids. I thought if we can just get both of them well physically, I felt sure we could rally around them and they would heal emotionally.”

The year has been a gut-wrenching mix of happiness and tragedy for the family. Angela Howard gave birth to Jerrod in March.

“She adored the older child, which wasn’t hers,” said Dale Howard, Perry’s father. “The baby--she couldn’t have enough of him.”

But on June 30, as the family drove to visit Perry’s father and step-mother in Tustin, their car was hit by another vehicle and ignited in flames. Tustin police said they expect to release results of their investigation by the end of the month.

“She was just a wonderful little girl,” Dale Howard said of his daughter-in-law. “She was young. She was a very loving person. She was just a beautiful person.”

The last time Sheehan saw Angela before the accident was at a June 23 peewee baseball game. Sheehan had been on vacation.

“Angela just came out of her car and said, ‘Let me give you a hug. I’ve missed you,’ ” Sheehan said. “How many daughters-in-law say that to their mothers-in-law? It just made me so happy. She was just so sweet and loving.”

Sheehan said she sometimes calls the young family’s Buena Park townhouse to hear David’s and Angela’s voices on the answering machine.

Perry Howard remains at UCI, fighting infections and receiving skin grafts. He has been heavily sedated since the accident and has never really opened his eyes in front of his mother.