There was pain on both sides of a courtroom aisle Friday, as a
preliminary hearing was scheduled for a Freedom woman accused of
driving while intoxicated and causing a crash that killed an Aromas
father of two boys.
Cathy Kelly
There was pain on both sides of a courtroom aisle Friday, as a preliminary hearing was scheduled for a Freedom woman accused of driving while intoxicated and causing a crash that killed an Aromas father of two boys.
Maria Villegas de Munoz, 51, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence causing injury to more than one person. The preliminary hearing was scheduled for Jan. 10.
Munoz came to court with four other women, who put their arms around her and comforted her as she walked down the hall after the hearing.
Preparing to leave in the other direction, the victim’s wife said goodbye to a friend from one of her son’s football teams who had come to court to support the family.
Peggy Parker said she will be at every hearing, even if it is only to set dates.
“I will come for every single thing; I want the judge to see me,” she said.
The California Highway Patrol reported that Munoz was driving a 1992 Camry north near Thompson Road on Sept. 27 when she struck a 2000 Harley Davidson ridden by James Parker. Parker, 49, was heading in the other direction; his 15-year-old son was on the back of the motorcycle.
Peggy Parker said her son is doing well, considering what he has been through.
She said her 10-year-old son wanted to know what Munoz looked like and why she wasn’t in jail.
Parker said she had hoped Munoz would remain in jail at least until her husband’s body was released for burial. But Judge Michael Barton, who was sitting in for Judge Paul Burdick, released her on her own recognizance at an earlier hearing, prosecutor Jason Gill said. He said he “objected very strenuously,” but that the judge placed her on house arrest.
Munoz’s attorney had argued she was not a flight risk and had an agricultural job and family in the Watsonville area, and no prior record, Gill said.
Parker was a Texas native who had lived in the Central Coast area since 1983, his wife said. He worked in the heavy construction industry for a Santa Clara County company, she said. He had ridden motorcycles for many years, she said.
She said she recently starting riding, and would continue to do so.
“We don’t look at it as a motorcycle accident; we look at it as drunk driving,” she said.
Parker said she thinks Munoz must feel awful.
“But the fact remains that she killed someone,” she said.
Gill said the evidence indicates the Camry drifted across the center dividing lines. He said Munoz’s blood alcohol level was 0.15 percent, and that there is a special sentencing enhancement for that level of impairment.
She faces a maximum sentence of 13 years in prison, if convicted, he said.
Munoz’s attorney, public defender Mandy Tovar, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
