SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Jury deliberations continued Monday in the trial of a Navy petty officer accused of driving drunk on a transition ramp to the San Diego-Coronado Bridge and plummeting over the side and into Chicano Park below, killing four people.
Richard Sepolio, 27, is charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI and reckless driving for the Oct. 15, 2016, deaths of Annamarie Contreras, 50, and Cruz Contreras, 52, a married couple from Chandler, Arizona; and Hacienda Heights residents Andre Banks, 49, and Francine Jiminez, 46. Seven other people were seriously injured.
Closing arguments concluded Thursday in Sepolio's trial, with jurors deliberating for just a few hours before breaking for the weekend.
Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright told jurors during closing arguments that Sepolio chose "to drive irritated, impaired and impatient," leading up to the crash. Prosecutors argue that in addition to having drinks prior to getting behind the wheel, Sepolio was arguing with his girlfriend over the phone just moments before losing control of his truck on the bridge.
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.
The defendant said he remembered being on top of a freeway barrier looking down, then waking up in the park and being pulled out of his truck. Sepolio said his memory was mostly "cloudy" about what happened after his truck plunged into the crowd below.
On the stand, he denied arguing with his then-girlfriend on the phone just before the crash, but admitted on cross-examination that he'd just left from a lunch with a female Navy colleague where "the idea was to go out and have a good time." Sepolio testified he had a glass of alcoholic cider and a glass of wine at lunch before heading back to Coronado.
As his closing argument began, defense attorney Paul Pfingst said multiple breath and blood tests showed that Sepolio was not under the influence of alcohol the day of the crash.One blood sample was taken to a California Highway Patrol office and wasn't tested for a year, Pfingst told the jury.
"They took his blood and they destroyed it ... and they say it's no big deal," the defense attorney said.
Sepolio faces at least 23 years and eight months in prison if convicted of all charges.
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