Woman Killed in Crash With CHP Car Mourned

Jessica Ann Mohorko and her boyfriend had just left a high school ball at a seaside resort in Oxnard and were on their way to meet her twin sister and her date at a restaurant. But the couples never met up.

Mohorko, 18, a Hueneme High School senior who was considering a career in law enforcement, was killed early Saturday when the car in which she was riding was broadsided by a California Highway Patrol officer in pursuit of a motorist driving erratically.

On Sunday, friends and relatives gathered at the Mohorko family’s small south Oxnard home and struggled to cope with the loss of a young woman described as an aspiring singer, devout Christian and jokester.

“She was a very happy, very upbeat person,” said John Mohorko, Jessica’s grandfather. “This is unbelievable.”

CHP officials have declined to comment on the cause of the crash, which occurred shortly after midnight on a busy stretch of Oxnard Boulevard in Oxnard.

Mohorko’s father, Edgar Allen Mohorko, senior pastor at Messiah Foursquare Church in Oxnard and a chaplain for the Oxnard Police Department, spent Sunday with his wife and family. In the morning, they went to an arcade for a previously scheduled outing for Jessica’s brother’s 12th birthday. In the afternoon, they planned a funeral.

“This is very difficult because she was such a good person who cared for so many people,” said John Ascencion, a longtime family friend and fellow church congregant.

Courtney Johnson, who met Mohorko in kindergarten at Oxnard’s Hathaway School, said her lifelong friend, who lived around the corner, was often laughing and joking.

“She was the more dominant twin,” said Johnson, 18. “She was just always up and always happy. And she always looked great, too. I mean, she never went anywhere without doing her makeup and hair.”

At the family’s lime-colored home, Mohorko shared a bedroom with her twin, Jaliece, and another sister, Jade, 19.

On Sunday, in the family’s sunlit living room, a photo of Mohorko and her boyfriend, Chris Haynes, captain of the high school football team, sat on the mantel. Tucked among three large flower arrangements in the corner was another photo showing a smiling Jessica in a Santa hat.

“She made everybody feel good,” said Jazz Wills, a friend and classmate.

According to her closest friends, Mohorko was a good student whose passion was singing. Last week, she and Jaliece began recording a CD of Christian pop tunes.

“She really had the talent and she could have made it as a singer,” said Alfred Leon, another friend.

In addition to recording, Mohorko sang at school pep rallies, once performing a Mariah Carey song, and she sang regularly at her father’s church.

Mohorko’s friends were an eclectic mix--jocks and scholars, the devoutly religious, the artistic. Church was very important to her, friends said, along with volunteer work for the homeless. She also worked part-time at a photo shop.

Late Friday night, Mohorko and Haynes had just left a ballroom at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort and were driving to meet Jaliece at a nearby Denny’s.

Mohorko had dressed for the dance in a black floor-length gown with spaghetti straps. Her long cocoa hair was curled, styled and swept up in front.

“I saw her at 10 minutes of 5 that day, and she was getting ready to go have the pictures taken,” said her mother, Marta Mohorko. “She was wearing her dress and her makeup and she looked beautiful.”

Hours later, as Haynes was turning from Oxnard Boulevard onto Gonzales Road, his 1994 Nissan Sentra was broadsided by a CHP patrol car.

Its red warning lights were activated, according to the CHP, but the agency did not say whether the siren was on.

The impact crushed the passenger side of the Sentra, killing Mohorko instantly, authorities said. Haynes was treated at a hospital for a broken arm and released.

Officer Jack Raughton, a 10-year CHP veteran, sustained cuts and bruises, and his partner and wife, Officer Christina Raughton, suffered scrapes on her face and arm, and neck pain.

Although it is unclear if any disciplinary or administrative action will be taken against the officers, Marta Mohorko said she and her family are angry about what they described as unprofessional behavior by authorities at the scene. Marta Mohorko said she was upset that her daughter’s body remained in the crushed car for more than five hours while officers investigated. A brief memorial service is tentatively planned for Thursday morning at South Coast Fellowship in Ventura, with burial to follow at Ivy Lawn Cemetery.

On Tuesday or Wednesday, Mohorko’s classmates plan to sell teal balloons--her favorite color--on campus and give the proceeds to her family.

“We were thinking people could write a message on the balloon to Jessica and then let it go,” said classmate Mandy Castillo.