A man who drove drunk and struck two people standing outside their vehicle in Pacific Beach, killing one of them, was sentenced Friday to 21 years to life in state prison.
Nestor Alejandro Hernandez, 24, pleaded guilty to murder and other charges for the Jan. 22, 2023, crash that killed 22-year-old Arizona resident Vanessa Urbina Aragonez.
Police said that around 1:30 a.m., Urbina Aragonez and her boyfriend were standing on the sidewalk next to their disabled SUV on Riviera Drive when they were struck by a Toyota Tacoma driven by Hernandez at high speeds.
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The impact killed Urbina Aragonez at the scene and left her 24-year-old boyfriend, Brian Armenta, pinned underneath the crashed pickup truck. Hernandez was arrested at the scene.
Deputy District Attorney Spencer Sharpe said Hernandez was driving 87 mph in a 25 mph zone while on probation for a previous DUI conviction.
Hernandez's attorney, Jamahl Kersey, asked for concurrent sentences for the charges related to Armenta's injuries, while Sharpe argued for consecutive terms because Armenta represented a separate victim and sustained serious injuries that required nine surgeries over the span of six months.
Kersey said his client had taken responsibility by pleading guilty to all charges he faced, but argued some consideration should be given to poor lighting conditions on that stretch of Riviera Drive. The defense attorney also said the victims' disabled vehicle did not have its lights on and was stopped partially in the roadway.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Dwayne K Moring disagreed, stating that the speeding involved made the lighting conditions and the presence of the disabled vehicle irrelevant.
A GoFundMe page created by Urbina Aragonez's brother described her as an aspiring nurse and "a beautiful, outgoing person" who "had a great sense of humor and a very generous heart."
Phoenix, Arizona-based 12News reported last year that she and Armenta had driven to San Diego for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, but had gotten a flat tire and were waiting for a rideshare vehicle when they were struck. Urbina Aragonez's brother, Eduardo, told the station she and her boyfriend had been dating for six years at the time of her death.
At Friday's sentencing hearing, Armenta said he feels "like a part of me has been ripped away and I'll never get it back. One moment, we were talking about our future. The next moment, I wake up in a hospital finding out she wasn't alive."
Urbina Aragonez's mother, Estella Aragonez, said her daughter was "full of life and had a brilliant future ahead of her."
In an apology statement to the victim's family, Hernandez said, "It was never my intention to hurt nobody. But my actions spoke otherwise."
