The reckless driver who killed her son is about to be released. This SoCal mom is furious

A woman who killed a 21-year-old bicyclist while driving and texting and then fled the scene is scheduled to be released after serving less than a third of her nine-year sentence. The victim’s mother is livid.

“How can you do this, be a repeat offender, kill somebody and serve 2½ years of a nine-year sentence?” Kellie Montalvo said. “It’s completely outrageous to us.”

Montalvo recently received a letter from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, reviewed by The Times, informing her that Neomi Velado, the 28-year-old woman who killed her son Benjamin, is scheduled to be released Saturday.

The department said in a statement that Velado’s earliest possible release date is this month. It said the date was determined based on credits for good conduct and for 124 days served in custody before imprisonment.

“She gets to be released on Valentine’s Day, which is another stab in the gut,” Montalvo said.

Velado was texting her boyfriend when she ran into Benjamin Montalvo with her car on June 11, 2020, while he was biking in Corona. She already had been in four at-fault crashes, three of which involved her being distracted by her phone, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety.

In June 2023, she was convicted of felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and felony hit and run causing death.

During the July 2023 sentencing hearing, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Matthew C. Perantoni remarked on the “demonstrated callousness of leaving a boy in the street to die,” according to reporting from the Press Enterprise.

The judge also noted that she attempted to cover up her crime by fixing her windshield before heading into work the following day, and although she did turn herself in that night at the behest of her mother, she was then photographed partying with her boyfriend in Las Vegas.

Prosecutors said she was drinking and smoking marijuana before the crash, but because of the delay before she turned herself in, there was no evidence to charge her with a DUI.

Velado is eligible for early release because of credits that can be earned for things such as completing rehabilitative or educational programs, abiding by the rules or completing wildfire firefighting work.

Most nonviolent offenders can earn credits for up to 50% of their sentence, but participation in fire camp can increase this to around 66.6%. The corrections department said it is legally prohibited from disclosing information on the credits Velado acquired while in custody.

“Quite frankly, we don’t give a darn about her good merit credits,” Montalvo said. “Where are Benjamin’s credits? Where are his milestones? She took every milestone that he could have ever achieved when she killed him.”

Montalvo is hoping there was an error made in calculating the credits and has appealed to the governor’s office for help.

“It’s our last, very thin thread of hope to have somebody take a look at this, because the numbers just did not add up for us,” she said.

Montalvo said she met with a representative from the governor’s legal affairs team in Sacramento on Wednesday who advised that although Gov. Gavin Newsom cannot overturn Velado’s early release, his office can look into whether the credits were calculated correctly. The governor’s office referred comments to the corrections department.

Montalvo spoke at a news conference in Sacramento on Thursday to support a new bipartisan legislative package intended to strengthen DUI and safety laws. She has become an advocate for traffic safety and, alongside her husband, Eddie Montalvo, founded the Inland Empire chapter of the nonprofit organization Streets Are for Everyone.

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One of the newly proposed laws, Senate Bill 907, is especially close to Montalvo’s heart because it would limit the early release of offenders such as Velado.

That law, proposed by state Sen. Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera), would add gross vehicular manslaughter and vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated to the list of violent felonies.

In California, offenders convicted of a violent felony can earn credits for up to only 15% of their sentence length.

SB 907 also aims to close a loophole for repeat DUI offenders. It would require a Watson warning to be read in court to all offenders who are charged with a DUI and accept a plea deal for the charge of hit-and-run. This warning — which describes the dangers and consequences of driving under the influence — gives prosecutors the ability to charge offenders with second-degree murder if they later kill someone while drunk.

This section of the law was inspired by 18-year-old Braun Levi, who was killed by a suspected drunk driver in Manhattan Beach last May. That driver previously had been arrested on suspicion of DUI but later pleaded to a hit-and-run.

“Our son was killed by a repeat DUI offender that the system failed to stop,” his mother, Jennifer Levi, said in a statement on SB 907. “No family should ever have to experience that kind of loss and pain.”

In addition, Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D–Irvine) is pushing for Assembly Bill 1830, a law that would require everyone convicted of a DUI to install a Breathalyzer that prevents their car from turning on if the driver has consumed alcohol.

“The system has let us down and we don’t want that,” Montalvo said. “There are going to be more future victims, and if we don’t speak up and use our story for the greater good, then who’s going to do it?”