Teen Killed In Rancho Santa Fe Rollover Crash

Posted: 10/05/2009
Last Updated: 1322 days ago

A Torrey Pines High School senior was in custody Monday on suspicion of driving drunk and causing a crash that killed a classmate and critically injured another in Rancho Santa Fe, authorities said.

The solo-vehicle crash occurred around 1:45 a.m. Sunday in the 5000 block of La Granada, along the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner.

Alex Capozza, a 17-year-old senior at Torrey Pines High School, died at the scene when the speeding 2008 Mazda 3 crashed and rolled several times into bushes, the Medical Examiner's Office reported.

An autopsy on Capozza's body was tentatively scheduled for Monday.

The California Highway Patrol said the vehicle was full of Torrey Pines students who had just left a party, including 17-year-old Jamie Arnold, who was later hospitalized in critical condition with blunt head trauma. Neither he nor Capozza were wearing a seatbelt, the CHP reported.

The driver, identified as 18-year-old Branden Butler, faces charges of drunken driving and gross vehicular manslaughter. CHP Sgt. Lew Hall said the driver and two other passengers, both 17, were wearing seatbelts and escaped injury.


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