Dolores Garcia could go free in 30 days
Officials say the sentence handed down last week to the Hollister woman convicted of killing a motorcyclist last Fourth of July while driving drunk was fair under the circumstances, despite the victim’s family members’ displeasure at her sentence that would allow her to be free after 30 days.
Hollister resident and admitted alcoholic Dolores Ortiz Garcia, 38, whose blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, killed 53-year-old Lompoc resident Richard Flores last July.
Garcia’s eight-month jail sentence for felony vehicular manslaughter was based in part on a recommendation from the San Benito County Probation Department. The report recommended Garcia get felony probation for six years because she did not have any prior record, showed remorse, and her employment and 11-year-old son would have been “severely” affected by a prison sentence.
Sheree Flores, widow of Richard Flores was outraged after the sentencing, as was Flores’ brother, Darryl Munn.
“It is no wonder that drunk driving is rampant is California,” he said in a statement. “Judges like this who care nothing about human life or the taking of a human life are now sending a message to San Benito County residents and California that drunk driving is OK even if you kill someone.”
Garcia, who admitted to being an alcoholic, has attended hundreds of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings since being arrested last July, her attorney Greg LaForge said.
“I think the sentence was clearly appropriate,” he said.
District Attorney John Sarsfield agreed. He compared Garcia’s sentence to that of Robert Orabuena, who was sentenced to one year in the San Benito County Jail in 2003 after being convicted of vehicular manslaughter for killing a motorcyclist from Salinas. Orabuena was not intoxicated, but a jury determined he was partially responsible.
Sarsfield said his office had asked for the mid-term sentence of four to six years, but wasn’t surprised. Asking for the maximum sentence of 10 years wouldn’t have been fair, Sarsfield said, although Flores’ family members expected nothing less.
“When you ask for the maximum you have to be serious – no judge would have given her 10 years,” he said. “Was this more aggravated than other manslaughter cases? The answer is no.”
