The man whose drunken driving left five children motherless will serve four years and four months in prison for his crime.
Julian Navarro Murillo, 25, was ushered into a San Jose courtroom shackled at the wrists and ankles for a sentencing hearing that lasted nearly an hour while relatives of Morgan Hill resident Lourdes Sanchez – who was killed in a head-on collision with Navarro Murillo’s truck last September – shared memories of their sister and mother and urged Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shapero to tack extra years onto the maximum possible sentence of six years.
“You took the love of my life,” said Jose Sanchez, 16, of his mother as he read aloud from a creased piece of paper, his voice so muffled with emotion that Shapero had to patiently ask that he speak louder.
Jose Sanchez was joined by his four siblings, his uncle and several cousins who filled the two rows of chairs behind the defendant. Many of them wore cotton T-shirts that read “In loving memory of Lourdes Sanchez” above a likeness of their beloved relative. Two members of Navarro Murillo’s family sat across the aisle and quietly slipped out of the courtroom after he was led out by a deputy.
Lourdes Sanchez, 48, died Sept. 16 after Navarro Murillo’s truck slammed into her car when he attempted to make an unsafe left turn onto Day Road from Santa Teresa Boulevard, directly into the path of Sanchez’s oncoming car. Sanchez was traveling southbound on Santa Teresa on her way to her job as a guard at Eagle Ridge from her home in Morgan Hill. The two vehicles collided head on and Sanchez was pronounced dead at the scene.
Murillo’s blood-alcohol level measured 0.17, more than two times the legal limit when it was tested two hours after the crash, Deputy District Attorney Patricia Henley reminded Shapero.
In December, Navarro Murillo pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter and driving while over the legal blood-alcohol limit and admitted to a further enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury.
Though Shapero said in court that he received letters attesting to Navarro Murillo’s character, no one other than his defense attorney, Ruben Munoz, stood to speak on his behalf. He bowed to rest his head in his hands and rub his eyes as several of the victim’s family members admonished him directly.
Navarro Murillo listened to the court proceedings with the help of a Spanish language interpreter but Suzanna Gutierrez, 29, the eldest of Lourdes Sanchez’s five children, spoke directly to him in Spanish.
“It doesn’t matter how much time you spend in jail,” she said, immediately breaking into sobs, tears tracing tracks of dark mascara down her cheeks. “The ones that will really pay for the rest of our lives is us – her children, her husband and the rest of her family. She was no one to you. She was just another stranger. But to her family, she was a mother, a sister, an aunt, a great person, a special person. She was happy.”
A second translator repeated her words in English to the court.
“I am no one to judge you,” Gutierrez continued. “But I will never forgive you. This pain you caused – I wouldn’t wish it on anyone in the world. It hurts too much.”
Jose Sanchez’s younger brother, Martin Hernandez stood to object to the maximum sentence of six years.
“I recommend 10 years to life,” he said, reminding the court that the collision occurred on a weekday during the morning rush hours. His body visibly shook as he spoke.
“He has to live with the burden of his actions,” Ruben Munoz said in court, standing next to his client. Munoz assured the court that Navarro Murillo was remorseful and had taken steps to correct his substance abuse problem. “There’s nothing we can say to the family to relieve their grief.”
Munoz said he felt one year of jail time followed by five years of probation would be adequate, given Navarro Murillo’s previously clean record.
Once family members and attorneys finished making their statements, Shapero paused.
“This is among some of the most tragic cases,” he began.
“I know you did not go out that day to hurt anyone, but you can see what the results of your decisions were … the devastation of two families,” he said to Navarro Murillo. “Nothing that’s done here can balance the loss of what has been suffered … but there has to be accountability.”
“While you may be one that can succeed on probation, this is not a probation level case,” Shapero said. “The punishment can only be satisfied by a prison commitment.”
Navarro Murillo was sentenced to four years and four months in prison with 170 days already under his belt from the time he was in custody. His time in prison will be followed by three years of parole.
Though Sanchez’s family was disappointed with a sentence they thought was not harsh enough, Henley said the judge could not sentence Navarro Murillo “in a vacuum.”
“He had to compare it to other cases, cases where the defendant had a prior criminal record,” she said.
