A 20-year-old San Diego man who caused a fiery crash that killed his two passengers pleaded guilty Thursday to DUI charges and gross vehicular manslaughter.
Antony Schoenle will face up to 12 years in prison at his sentencing on Oct. 16. Schoenle had originally pleaded not guilty, but changed that plea on Thursday.
Schoenle was behind the wheel of a 2000 Dodge Stratus in the early hours of Aug. 22 when he crashed his car in the 4800 block of Friars Road in Bay Park. Police said Schoenle, suspected of driving while intoxicated, slammed into a curb, drove onto an embankment and struck a large boulder.
The car then caught on fire, the flames spreading to nearby brush off the side of the road. Firefighters were the first to arrive on scene, thinking they were responding to a brush fire when they discovered the mangled, scorched wreckage.
Schoenle was driving with two passengers, Lizzy Garcia and Lupe Acosta, both in their early 20s, and Acosta’s puppy.
Schoenle was able to escape from the flaming wreckage, but his passengers and the dog could not get out. The young women and dog died in the fiery crash, police said.
Schoenle suffered severe burns and was hospitalized until his arraignment and arrest on Aug. 26. Sitting in a hospital bed at UCSD Medical Center, he was charged with two counts of felony manslaughter, felony DUI and providing false information.
At his arraignment last month, Deputy District Attorney Steven Schott said Schoenle decided to drive on Aug. 22 after 12 hours of partying the night before that included the use of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine.
Prosecutors argued that after the crash, Schoenle saved himself with no regard for the lives of his passengers.
“This defendant unbuckled himself and climbed over Miss Garcia, the front passenger, to get out – a woman he referred to in an interview as ‘dead weight,’” Schott said. “Both of these women were burned beyond recognition, actually burned down to the bone in some places.”
No other cars were involved in the deadly DUI collision.
Loved ones said the women killed in the crash were best friends who had attended Oceanside High School and played in the marching band together.
