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Woman pleads guilty to DUI crash that killed mom

Posted at 1:39 PM, Feb 19, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-19 16:39:28-05

SAN DIEGO - A woman who was driving drunk when her vehicle slammed into two parked cars and a dumpster in Clairemont, killing her mother, pleaded guilty Friday to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

Paulina Munoz, 27, is expected to be sentenced to six years in state prison when she goes before a judge March 18, said Deputy District Attorney Steven Schott.

At an earlier hearing, Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright told a judge that Munoz spent most of the night of Sept. 25 drinking with her partner and her mother.

Ignoring a text message not to drive, Munoz was behind the wheel when her car crashed about 2:20 the next morning in the 3500 block of Clairemont Drive, not far from her home, the prosecutor said. Maria Isabel Villareal, 50, was killed.

After the crash, Munoz told police that her mother had been driving, but officers determined that the defendant had been behind the wheel, according to Bright.

Ninety minutes after the fatal accident, Munoz's blood-alcohol level was measured at .20 percent, more than twice the legal limit for driving, the prosecutor said.