NewsLocal News

Actions

San Diego driver pleads guilty to deadly DUI crash with Lyft car in Balboa Park

Posted
and last updated

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A drunken driver who crashed into a Lyft vehicle at high speed on state Route 163 in Balboa Park -- killing one passenger and injuring the other two occupants -- pleaded guilty Wednesday to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and DUI causing injury.

Alondra Selena Marquez, 22, of San Diego, faces up to 13 years and four months in prison, with sentencing slated for Sept. 24 at the downtown San Diego courthouse.

Prosecutors say Marquez had a .25 percent blood alcohol content -- more than three times the legal limit -- at the time of the March 23 crash that killed San Francisco resident Giao Pham.

RELATED: 1 dead, 3 injured in crash along SR-163

Pham, 40, was in San Diego to attend a wedding when the vehicle he was riding in was struck from behind by Marquez's car about 2:30 a.m. on SR 163 near Laurel Street.

Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright said Marquez was traveling somewhere between 101 and 108 miles per hour at the time.

The other passenger -- Pham's friend, Andy Lynn -- was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury, which still affects him to this day, the prosecutor said. The Lyft driver suffered minor injuries in the crash, but has had to seek counseling due to the emotional after-effects of the crash, according to Bright.