Vista Death Nets Drunk Driver 11 Years

In an emotional hearing, a 21-year-old former Marine who was driving drunk was sentenced to 11 years, 8 months Thursday for striking and killing a 16-year-old Vista boy as the boy sat on the curb in front of his home, talking to his girlfriend.

Vista Superior Court Judge Richard M. Murphy sentenced Fred Gonzales to the maximum allowable term in state prison. Then, his voice cracking, he told Gonzales that, despite the stiff sentence, “it will never compensate for the life of Michael Cook. He will never see another sunset, hear a symphony or hold his first-born child.”

Gonzales, who was 20 at the time of the July accident, was convicted by a jury in December of gross vehicular manslaughter, felony hit-and-run driving and driving while under the influence of alcohol.

Gonzales’ blood alcohol content was measured at 0.20%, twice the level of legal intoxication at the time. At the time of the killing, Gonzales was on probation for an earlier conviction of driving while under the influence of alcohol.

In a statement she read to the court, the victim’s mother, Sandra Cook, said:

“If anyone drinks and drives and as a result kills or injures someone, it is no accident. Getting behind the wheel after drinking never happens accidentally. It is done on purpose and amounts to a motorized version of Russian roulette with someone else’s life.”

Investigators said Gonzales had spent the afternoon drinking beer at a friend’s home in Vista and was driving more than 55 m.p.h. down narrow, winding Breeze Hill Road on the evening of July 22 when his pickup truck jumped the curb and struck Cook and his girlfriend, Michelle Wager. The girl suffered minor injuries but Cook apparently was struck without ever seeing what hit him, and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

Gonzales then hit a street light and continued down the road. He was finally pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy and a California Highway Patrol officer because they were suspicious of the damage to his car.

Gonzales claimed in court that the accelerator pedal of his vehicle stuck, causing him to lose control of the vehicle. But there was no evidence of a mechanical malfunction, jurors were told.

The county Probation Department and Sandra Cook had both complained that Gonzales had shown no public remorse for the crime. To that, Gonzales’ defense attorney, Roy Spencer, said his client had privately cried over the incident but noted: “I don’t think Marines are supposed to give the impression of great emotion in public.”

On Thursday, Gonzales read his own statement in court. “I know that a simple apology could never replace that which I have taken, but I would like the court and everyone here in the court to know that I do feel very badly about this unfortunate accident,” he said, speaking slowly and his face appearing anguished. “I understand the seriousness of the offenses I have been charged with and believe that I have learned a great deal from this very unfortunate incident that has cost me so much.”

He then asked the court’s mercy in sentencing, noting that he had served in the military, is married and “the fact that I am not a bad person.”

But Sandra Cook, in her follow-up statement to the court, said she is still frustrated by the lack of remorse.

“Mr. Gonzales’ only concern from the moment of the crash was of himself and getting away. He saved himself from seeing what he had done to them,” she complained.

“No words can describe what it is like to hear the sound of a vehicle go out of control, a crash which sounded like an explosion, then to run outside and discover that your son, his girlfriend and the light post they were sitting by just a few minutes before are gone, then to see Michelle lying many feet away, calling for Michael, and then to see Michael even further away, lying so quietly, in such an unnatural state that it was obvious his body was badly broken,” she said.

“I called for an ambulance, but I really knew at that moment that he was dead. Each day I pray that he was not aware of what was happening to him, and that he didn’t feel anything.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Oliphant noted that Gonzales was already on probation for another drinking-and-driving offense, but that he still didn’t learn his lesson. “We shouldn’t have to see people get killed in order to put individuals on notice of the dangers of drinking and driving,” Oliphant said. “He has shown a complete lack of accountability. He continues to refer to this incident as an accident. But he chose to drink alcohol and he chose to get behind the wheel of his vehicle.”

Murphy had the options of sentencing Gonzales to prison terms of 4, 6 or 10 years on the most serious of the three counts, gross vehicular manslaughter, and chose the stiffest because of the amount of alcohol Gonzales had consumed, the fact that he was traveling at high speed and because the victims were especially vulnerable.

To the 10-year term, he added eight months for driving under the influence, and a year for felony hit-and-run.

His voice breaking, Murphy noted that, although Gonzales will one day be freed, Cook’s parents face “a lifetime of pain, grief and emptiness from which they simply cannot escape. This is the tragedy of drunk driving. You lose. Michael loses. Michael’s family loses. Society loses. I only hope that others learn from this terrible tragedy.”

Afterward, Spencer said he understood the judge’s reasoning for sentencing his client to the maximum allowable. “This was a terribly emotional case,” he said. “I suggested to (Gonzales) that he not be surprised.”

As Gonzales was led away in handcuffs, his parents, Olga and Fred Gonzales, hurried from the courtroom. Fred Gonzales is a correctional officer at Vacaville State Prison.