Napa jury convicts repeat DUI driver of murder
(KRON) — A repeat DUI driver was convicted of second-degree murder on Wednesday following a jury trial in Napa County Superior Court.
Jurors convicted Mauricio Ramirez Aguilar, 40, of murdering Constantine Tsavalas, 87, of Yountville, in a 2020 collision on Highway 29.
“This verdict sends a powerful message to those who make the choice of getting behind the
wheel of a vehicle while they are impaired,” said Deputy District Attorney Kayla Richeson.
The deadly crash happened at 3 p.m. on Oct. 17, 2020 near Yountville. Aguilar was driving a white pickup truck southbound along Highway 29 at a high rate of speed when he collided with a Nissan pathfinder driven by the victim who was entering the highway from Hoffman Lane.
Aguilar had a blood alcohol content of .204 percent, nearly three times the legal limit of .08 percent, and drove at speeds of 86 miles per hour, Napa County prosecutors said.
Before the deadly wreck, Aguilar was convicted of two DUI crashes. In 2008, Aguilar was drunk when he hit a parked car along Kansas Avenue in Napa, prosecutors said.
The second DUI happened right in front of a California Highway Patrol office on January 27, 2019. Aguilar drove his vehicle into a power pole on Golden Gate Drive and electrical lines set his car on fire. Aguilar was knocked unconscious and his car burst into flames. He was rescued by firefighters who extricated him, prosecutors said.
Less than two years after firefighters saved his life, Aguilar drove drunk again, crashed, and killed Tsavalas, prosecutors said.
At Aguilar’s first two DUI sentencing hearings, a judge gave him a Watson Admonition, a court warning that it is extremely dangerous to human life to drive while under the influence of alcohol. The admonition also included a stern warning that he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving drunk in the future.
With the jury’s murder verdict on Wednesday, those prior warnings proved to be true.
“The evidence in this case was clear, the facts were undeniable, and the truth of the matter
unmistakable,” Deputy District Attorney Katie Susemihl said. “The conviction of Mr. Aguilar ensures that our community is safer, and it honors the memory of the victim whose life was unjustly taken.”
Aguilar will be sentenced on June 12 by Napa County Superior Court Judge Elia Ortiz.
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