HOLLISTER
– Robert Orabuena plead not guilty to two vehicular manslaughter
charges Wednesday.
HOLLISTER – Robert Orabuena plead not guilty to two vehicular manslaughter charges Wednesday.
The District Attorney’s Office dropped murder charges against Orabuena on Tuesday after tests concluded the Gilroy man was not intoxicated and didn’t have drugs in his system at the time of a deadly July 4 accident.
Orabuena, 41, plead not guilty in front of Superior Court Judge Harry Tobias to gross vehicular manslaughter, a felony, and vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence, a misdemeanor. He is also charged with reckless driving with injury, a misdemeanor, and one count of driving with no proof of insurance shown, according to court documents.
The charges combined carry a 15 year sentence.
The charges stem from the Fourth of July accident on Fairview Road near the Spring Grove Road intersection in which motorcyclist Joseph Judnick, 48, of Salinas, died.
Orabuena’s $100,000 bail was reduced to $30,000.
