Adrianna Bachan, Marcus Garfinkle |
LOS ANGELES -- After an emotional hearing in a downtown L.A. courtroom, a husband and wife responsible for a hit-and-run crash that killed a USC student and seriously injured another were sentenced to the maximum time behind bars.
Claudia Cabrera received 8-years while her husband Josue Luna got 7-years after pleading no contest to charges of hit and run, vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.
Judge Robert J. Perry said the couple deserved the maximum prison time.
"The acts of the defendants were outrageous and shocking... These actions were extremely callous."
Police say Cabrera was driving the Infiniti that struck 18-year-old Adrianna Bachan and her friend Marcus Garfinkle last March in a crosswalk near the USC campus.
The students were crossing Jefferson Boulevard at Hoover Street just before 3 a.m. when they were struck by the Infiniti which ran a red light. Bachan died at the scene from massive head injuries. The car also hit 19-year-old Marcus Garfinkle, whose legs were broken.
Authorities say Cabrera was driving on a suspended license and had her 7-month-old son in the car at the time.
Garfinkle was carried up to 400 feet on the windshield until the car stopped, Luna pulled him off and left him in the street.
Luna admitted taking Garfinkle's body off of the Infiniti, but said he believed crews at a nearby fire station would be able to help him.
Garfinkle required multiple surgeries. His family is fighting their health insurance company over more than $200,000 owed in medical bills, according to the court documents.
He spoke at Monday's hearing before sentencing, often breaking down into tears.
"I was treated like an animal. I will never forget waking up on the side of the road covered in blood and naked," Garfinkle told the court.
He also said that his pain continues today and he may never be able to run again. He weeped before the court saying he was still upset that he couldn't protect Adrianna.
A student who witnessed the crash testified at a court hearing last year that he saw the car's passenger haul Garfinkle's body out of the vehicle's broken windshield while the driver pushed from the inside.
The student said the passenger dumped Garfinkle onto the sidewalk before the car sped off.
Cabrera's sister, Jennifer, testified during a preliminary hearing that in the hours before the crash, the defendants had been at a party in the San Fernando Valley, where they "ordered margaritas and beer" and later got into a heated argument over comments made about the Kardashian sisters, stars of a television reality show.
The couple denies being drunk at the time of the crash. Their attorney says they fled the scene out of fear.
Cabrera was arrested April 2, after $235,000 in reward money was posted and Bachan's mother made a series of televised emotional pleas seeking the public's help in capturing the suspects.
Luna was arrested April 18 in San Ysidro while crossing back into the United States from Mexico.
Investigators serving a search warrant on the couple's home found broken glass in the garage and tarps speckled with blood, Los Angeles police Detective Sandra Smith testified.
Claudia Cabrera received 8-years while her husband Josue Luna got 7-years after pleading no contest to charges of hit and run, vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.
Judge Robert J. Perry said the couple deserved the maximum prison time.
"The acts of the defendants were outrageous and shocking... These actions were extremely callous."
Police say Cabrera was driving the Infiniti that struck 18-year-old Adrianna Bachan and her friend Marcus Garfinkle last March in a crosswalk near the USC campus.
The students were crossing Jefferson Boulevard at Hoover Street just before 3 a.m. when they were struck by the Infiniti which ran a red light. Bachan died at the scene from massive head injuries. The car also hit 19-year-old Marcus Garfinkle, whose legs were broken.
Authorities say Cabrera was driving on a suspended license and had her 7-month-old son in the car at the time.
Garfinkle was carried up to 400 feet on the windshield until the car stopped, Luna pulled him off and left him in the street.
Luna admitted taking Garfinkle's body off of the Infiniti, but said he believed crews at a nearby fire station would be able to help him.
Garfinkle required multiple surgeries. His family is fighting their health insurance company over more than $200,000 owed in medical bills, according to the court documents.
He spoke at Monday's hearing before sentencing, often breaking down into tears.
"I was treated like an animal. I will never forget waking up on the side of the road covered in blood and naked," Garfinkle told the court.
He also said that his pain continues today and he may never be able to run again. He weeped before the court saying he was still upset that he couldn't protect Adrianna.
A student who witnessed the crash testified at a court hearing last year that he saw the car's passenger haul Garfinkle's body out of the vehicle's broken windshield while the driver pushed from the inside.
The student said the passenger dumped Garfinkle onto the sidewalk before the car sped off.
Cabrera's sister, Jennifer, testified during a preliminary hearing that in the hours before the crash, the defendants had been at a party in the San Fernando Valley, where they "ordered margaritas and beer" and later got into a heated argument over comments made about the Kardashian sisters, stars of a television reality show.
The couple denies being drunk at the time of the crash. Their attorney says they fled the scene out of fear.
Cabrera was arrested April 2, after $235,000 in reward money was posted and Bachan's mother made a series of televised emotional pleas seeking the public's help in capturing the suspects.
Luna was arrested April 18 in San Ysidro while crossing back into the United States from Mexico.
Investigators serving a search warrant on the couple's home found broken glass in the garage and tarps speckled with blood, Los Angeles police Detective Sandra Smith testified.
