DUI driver sentenced for killing 4 in Southern California

VISTA, Calif. (AP) — A driver who ran onto a Southern California sidewalk and killed four people, including two young children, was sentenced Thursday to 25 years to life in prison.

Prosecutors say Ashley Williams, 30, was under the influence of difluoroethane, a gas used in aerosol products, and had marijuana and methamphetamine in her system when the crash occurred in May 2020 in Escondido.

Williams also was driving on a suspended license from a previous DUI drug conviction, prosecutors said.

Killed were Carmela Comacho, 50; her boyfriend, Abel Valdez, 33, and her two grandsons Emmanuel Rivas, 11, and Yovanny Felix, 10.

Williams was sentenced in Vista Superior Court after pleading guilty in April to second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter.

She cried during the sentencing hearing, which included a victim impact statement from Norma Espinoza, whose mother and two sons died.

“Nobody knows how many times I cry myself to sleep, and think that this is just a nightmare wishing I could just wake up and see them in our home again,” Espinoza said.

“I think one day I might forgive her, but I don’t think I’m ready to do that now. It still hurts,” she said.