A woman who crashed into a parked car and dumpster, killing her mother, who was riding in the passenger seat, had more than two times the legal limit of alcohol in her blood hours after the crash, prosecutors said at her arraignment. She pleaded not guilty.
The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) said the driver, 26-year-old Paulina Munoz, was driving southbound at high rate of speed in the 3500 block of Clairemont Drive around 2:20 a.m. Saturday when she lost control of her vehicle. Prosecutors said she had been drinking the night of the crash with her partner and her mother.
As she drifted off the roadway, she slammed into a parked car, which pushed that vehicle into another parked car nearby. She then drove onto a sidewalk and plowed into a dumpster, investigators said.
The woman was accompanied by her 50-year-old mother, Maria Villarreal. Villarreal was sitting in the passenger seat and suffered critical injuries in the collision. She was pronounced dead at the scene, police confirmed.
After the crash, prosecutors said Munoz told the police her mother had been driving the car, but officers determined she had been the one behind the wheel.
Ninety minutes after the crash, Munoz's blood alcohol level was a .20, about two and a half times over the legal limit for driving, prosecutors said.
Investigators said the daughter, suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol, was taken to a local hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. Munoz was charged with gross vehicular manslaughter and DUI causing great bodily injury.
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The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information on the crash should call Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
