Plea Deal Struck in Fatal Crash

The teenage son of a Pomona Superior Court commissioner struck a deal with prosecutors Thursday in a vehicular manslaughter case in which he was accused of careening into a crowd of pedestrians in Pasadena, killing three people.

Under the plea agreement, Jarett Olson, 18, admitted to three misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter. He had been charged with three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter and one felony count of reckless driving resulting in great bodily harm.

“After a review at the highest levels of this office, it was decided this was a fair disposition for this case,” said Sandi Gibbons, a Los Angeles County district attorney’s office spokeswoman.

Olson’s sport-utility vehicle slammed into a group of families outside Chandler School on April 29, 2000, instantly killing Sarah Karesh, 34, of Pasadena and her 3-year-old daughter, Madison. Nicholas Montoya, 4, died a week later of head injuries, and his grandfather, Philip Montoya, had a leg amputated.

According to prosecutors, Olson’s vehicle swerved into oncoming traffic and then hit the families on the sidewalk, pinning people under the car and against a stone wall.

Olson, of Pasadena, was charged in Juvenile Court because he was 16 at the time of the incident. A Juvenile Court commissioner could sentence Olson to remain in his parents’ home while on probation, or send him to a group home or a California Youth Authority institution.

An adult who agreed to such a plea could have received up to three years in prison, Gibbons said. The victims’ families are also suing Olson in civil court.