A Southern California couple was sentenced Friday in the death of an aspiring filmmaker who was struck by a car while walking home from a party in the Pacific Palisades.
Marguerite Dao Vuong, who was accused of driving the car that hit 23-year-old David Pregerson, received three years in prison while her husband, Michael Vuong, received one year in county jail and three years probation for being an accessory to the fatal hit-and-run.
"How can someone leave a mortally wounded child on a dark road in the middle of the night?" Dean Pregerson asked during the sentencing, David Pregerson's father and a judge in the U.S. Central District.
The couple, both in their 60s and from the Palms area, pleaded no contest to the 2013 collision on Feb. 6 without an agreed sentence.
Dean Pregerson described the daily pain his son's death causes him and recounted the night of the crash remembering the last hug he would ever have with him.
"You never get over the loss of a child," he said.
He compared the way his son was left to die to "roadkill."
U.S. & World
Prosecutors said Marguerite Vuong was driving the car that hit David Pregerson and that her husband tried to help his wife avoid prosecution by taking the blame.
On Dec. 27, 2013 David Pregerson was walking home from a bar when he was struck around 3 a.m. near the intersection of Chautauqua Boulevard and Borgos Place. Four days later, the recent UCLA graduate and budding film student died from his injuries on New Year's Eve.
