GILROY
– Prosecutors officially dropped a charge of vehicular
manslaughter against a Gilroy man who hit and killed a pedestrian
while driving drunk, blood tests show.
GILROY – Prosecutors officially dropped a charge of vehicular manslaughter against a Gilroy man who hit and killed a pedestrian while driving drunk, blood tests show.
Bradley Whalen, 38, still faces felony charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, with neglect causing injury or death. He is pleading not guilty, and his trial is set to begin on June 28.
Court records reveal that Whalen’s blood contained .11 percent alcohol shortly after his 1996 Chevrolet Silverado pickup hit and immediately killed 26-year-old Esteban Hernandez-Santiago on March 15, 2003. The legal blood-alcohol limit is .08 percent.
Hernandez-Santiago, a laborer who lived in Gilroy, was crossing Tenth Street near Hanna Street when Whalen’s truck ran him over. He was walking home from the store. He left behind a 22-year-old wife, a 6-year-old son and daughters ages 5 and 8 months.
Whalen has been free on bail since five days after the accident.
If convicted, Whalen faces up to six years in prison, deputy district attorney Kevin Smith said. The vehicular manslaughter charge carried a 10-year maximum sentence.
Smith agreed to drop the vehicular manslaughter charge on Jan. 23, the morning of Whalen’s preliminary hearing. Thursday, it was made official.
To convict someone of vehicular manslaughter, a prosecutor must prove that the defendant acted with “gross negligence,” similar to recklessness. In investigating the case, Smith said, he determined he didn’t have enough evidence to prove this.
If Hernandez-Santiago had been in a marked crosswalk or an “unmarked crosswalk” – a natural crossing place at an intersection – it would have been evidence of gross negligence, but Smith said it appeared Hernandez-Santiago was crossing at a less orthodox location.
