Sometimes justice takes a long time. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of months.
And sometimes, both cases are just too tragic to comprehend.
In the first case, a Phelan man has pleaded guilty for the June, 2008 collision with a family of four enjoying a quiet bike ride that left one child dead just weeks before her 2nd birthday, and her 11-month old brother severely injured.
According to the San Bernardino Sun, the incident occurred when Jesse Rolando Astorga fled the scene following a drunken collision with another car.
Rialto police say Astorga fled from a fender bender with another car in June 2008, when he ran his 2008 Honda Pilot into a median on South Willow Avenue a few minutes after noon, veered to the right, jumped a curb and struck a family of four riding on the sidewalk.
The collision knocked the father, 28-year old William Dean Dinoso, off his bike, and ripped off the bike trailer carrying the two children. He then smashed into the 26-year old mother, Glenda Brooks, throwing her off the car’s windshield and into the gutter.
Brooks, who was unaware that she was pregnant at the time, later delivered another son who was born with developmental difficulties.
Astorga was videotaped buying two 18-packs of beer at a gas station just an hour before the collision.
According to the Sun, he accepted a plea deal on September 9th for five felony counts.
Astorga, now 31, would have faced 10 felony counts at trial, including murder. However, he pleaded guilty to charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, hit and run resulting injury or death, and three counts of drunken driving with a 0.08 blood alcohol content, causing bodily injury.
He now faces the next 19 years in prison.
And a two-year old’s family faces life without her.
……..
In a bizarrely tragic case, a 19-year old Rialto man has been sentenced to 300 days in jail for a hit-and-run collision that severely injured an 18-year old BMX racer, possibly leading to his death in a separate collision months later.
In January of this year, Andrew Dean Murvine drove his pickup truck off Norco Drive in Riverside, and onto a dirt path used by pedestrians and horseback riders. He struck Tyler Rosen as he was walking along the path, then fled the scene, leaving Rosen with life-threatening injuries.
Remarkably, despite weeks in a coma, Rosen recovered from his injuries enough to get back on his bike.
Then on July 30th, he was hit by another car while riding, and reamined in a coma until taken off life support on August 7th.
According to the Valley News, family members believe he would never have been hit by the second car if not for the lingering injuries from the first collision.
As in the Astorga case, Murvine accepted a plea deal, changing his plea to guilty in exchange for a sentence of 300 days in jail and three years probation.
He had faced up to three years in prison.
