SAN DIEGO — A man who was sentenced to nearly a decade in state prison for crashing a pickup truck over the side of a transition ramp to the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, killing four people and injuring several others when it landed in Chicano Park, is slated for early release, drawing strong opposition Wednesday from the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.
The DA's Office said it was recently notified that Richard Anthony Sepolio, 27, will be released on Friday after serving two years and 10 months of his nine-year, eight-month prison sentence.
Sepolio was convicted by a jury of four counts of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and one count of DUI causing injury. Prosecutors say he drank prior to getting behind the wheel -- but was found to be below the legal blood alcohol limit -- was speeding and attempted to cut off another driver when his truck careened off the bridge and landed in the park below.
The Oct. 15, 2016, crash killed Annamarie Contreras, 50, and Cruz Contreras, 52, a married couple from Chandler, Arizona; and Hacienda Heights residents Andre Banks, 49, and Francine Jimenez, 46. Seven other people were seriously injured.
"Sepolio is not like any other prisoner," said MaryAnn Contreras, whose parents were killed. "He killed four people. He injured seven seriously and he affected hundreds of lives."
"I lost my parents, both of them in an instant and it's horrendously changed our lives," she added. "We'll never be the same. He gets to walk free tomorrow, have Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter. Meanwhile at our kitchen table, we have two empty chairs that we will never be able to fill."
The DA's Office said the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation "surprised" victims and prosecutors on Monday with the notification that Sepolio would be released.
The CDCR cited "various prison credits for good behavior as well as its policy of releasing inmates early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were no specific reasons cited related to this defendant," according to the DA's Office.
"At the rally where my parents were at, there was over a thousand people there," said MaryAnn. "That's over a 1,000 people that witnesses this serious event. We had so many people reach out to us to say their lives have never been the same. They can never erase the images they saw that day."
"This very early release is unconscionable," San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said. "CDCR's decision is re-victimizing the family and friends of the four people killed and seven injured who have been devastated by their loss and continue to deal with the financial, emotional, mental and physical trauma caused by the defendant. This inmate continues to deny and minimize the crime by refusing to admit he was speeding and denying being impaired while arguing with his girlfriend on the phone, which resulted in the devastating crash."
At trial, Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright told jurors Sepolio chose "to drive irritated, impaired and impatient." In addition to having drinks prior to getting behind the wheel, Sepolio was arguing with his girlfriend on the phone just moments before losing control of his truck on the bridge, the prosecutor said.
"Mr. Sepolio is being treated like every other person in the California prison system," said Sepolio's attorney, Paul Pfingst. "He's getting no favoritism, no extra breaks. The victims' families, obviously and understandably, wish that he was convicted of a more serious offense, but he was not."
Sepolio testified he was driving on the transition ramp -- a route back to Coronado that he had driven more than 90 times before -- when he sped up to merge in front of another car and lost control. Prosecutors said he was driving between 81 and 87 mph when the crash occurred.
"He has done everything that the court system has asked him to do, everything the Navy asked him to do, [and] everything the prison system has asked him to do and he has received the credits that every other prisoner in the state of California receives. That is why he is being released."
MaryAnn thinks the time served isn't enough.
"He has never apologized to us," she said.
