CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / FULLERTON

By Carol J. Williams

April 15, 2009 12 AM PT

A 46-year-old Anaheim man drew a 10-year prison sentence Tuesday for a drunk-driving accident that killed a 71-year-old woman and gravely injured her 76-year-old co-worker as the two were driving home from their jobs at Angel Stadium.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Stanford Jr. sentenced Miguel Angel Gallardo a day after Gallardo entered a guilty plea to charges that could have sent him to prison for nearly 13 years.

The crash last year killed Maria Lewis and left Teresa Reeger with a fractured skull. Reeger, now 77, testified before the judge that the accident “just ruined” her life.

Gallardo had been cited for driving under the influence 10 days before the fatal crash, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Price. He wasn’t charged with murder, as was a repeat DUI offender in last week’s deadly collision that killed Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others, because Gallardo hadn’t been convicted on the previous offense, Price said.

-- Carol J. Williams

Angels

Carol J. Williams

Carol J. Williams is former senior international affairs writer for the Los Angeles Times. A foreign correspondent for 25 years, she has won five Overseas Press Club awards, two Sigma Delta Chi citations and was a 1993 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting. She has served as Times bureau chief in Budapest, Vienna, Moscow, Berlin and the Caribbean. A native of Rhode Island and irrepressible Red Sox fan, Williams speaks Russian, German, French and Spanish, and has reported from more than 80 countries. She left The Times in 2015.

CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / FULLERTON

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