With the 3-year-old child of the victim in the courtroom, an Orange County female with 3 previous convictions for driving under the influence was sentenced to 15 years to life on Friday for eliminating a pregnant lady that she struck with her car in 2020.
Courtney Fritz Pandolfi, 44, of
Garden Grove pleaded guilty in February to two felonies, consisting of murder and driving under the impact of drugs causing bodily injury with two or more priors. She likewise pleaded guilty to numerous misdemeanors, prosecutors said.
According to the Orange County Office of the District Attorney, Pandolfi was driving in
Anaheim while under the influence of a drug mixed drink, consisting of drug and methamphetamine, when she leapt a curb around 7:30 p.m. on August 11, 2020.
She raked into a metal newspaper stand on the sidewalk with her white Jeep SUV before striking 23-year-old Yesenia Aguilar, who was pregnant and holding hands with her husband on Katella Avenue near Bayless Street.
James Alvarez and Yesenia Aguilar are seen in a family picture offered to BNN.
Pandolfi continued driving even after striking Aguilar. She drove an additional 347 feet before the Jeep ended up being disabled.
Aguilar died from her injuries, but her child was conserved in an emergency situation C-section. That infant, now a 3-year-old woman, remained in court Friday with her dad, Aguilar's widow, James Alvarez.
" Yesenia's last act on this earth was to do whatever she could to safeguard her unborn baby," said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. "A lovely little girl came into the world fighting like hell to make it through the tragedy that took her own mother's life, and the strength that little lady has actually shown gave her own dad the will to live."
Yesenia Aguilar is seen in a picture posted to a GoFundMe.
" Adalyn Rose's first breath will be forever inextricably intertwined with her mom's last breath, however that little woman will grow up understanding that her mom's last act on earth was to do whatever she could to protect her coming baby," Spitzer continued. "Driving under the impact has effects and Yesenia, James, and little Adalyn Rose are evidence that those effects are not simply numbers, they are lives that should have to be cohabited not birthdays spent grieving the loss of a caring mom."
A few of the counts that Pandolfi pleaded guilty to were in connection to a November 2019 arrest for driving while under the influence of a mix of drugs, consisting of meth and morphine.
Even before that guilty plea, she 'd been convicted of driving under the impact of drugs 3 times prior in 2008, 2015, and 2016.
Pandolfi was alerted about the Watson advisement all 3 times, district attorneys said, which California requires for those founded guilty of DUI. The advisement alerts those convicted that if they ever kill someone while driving under the influence, they can be charged with murder.
Close Modal
Recommend a Correction
Your name( required).
Your e-mail( needed).
Report a typo or grammatical error( needed).
Send.
ΔΔ.
Suggest a Correction.
Comments
Leave a Reply