Caltrans Worker Pleads Not Guilty in Road Death
A Fillmore man pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges Wednesday in the death of a woman struck on the side of a state highway as she helped her son.
Sergio Casas, 36, was charged last month with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and with being under the influence of cocaine. If convicted, he faces up to 13 years in state prison.
The accident occurred July 26 as Robin McDonald-Gwaltney, 43, was picking up her son, Jason McMillan, 20, from the side of California 126 after his car broke down on the way to his wedding rehearsal in Santa Paula.
McDonald-Gwaltney was carrying a tuxedo from her son’s Ford Mustang to her BMW when she was struck by a pickup truck driven by Casas, according to CHP officials.
McMillan was pinned between his mother’s car and his Mustang, and suffered a broken leg and pelvis.
Casas, a California Department of Transportation maintenance worker who was not on duty at the time of the accident, remains free on $50,000 bail.
A preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 13.
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