Palm Desert man pleads guilty to misdemeanor manslaughter in fatal Mecca crash

A 74-year-old Palm Desert resident pleaded guilty today to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter involving the 2015 death of a motorist in Mecca and was immediately sentenced to three years probation.

Charles Homer Washburn was charged with vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence about one year after the Dec. 18, 2015, head-on crash that killed 50-year-old Mecca resident Roberto Rodriguez.

Washburn was driving a Subaru Legacy that struck Rodriguez’s Honda Civic at the intersection of Highway 111 and Johnson Street around 6:30 p.m. Rodriguez was pronounced dead at the scene.

Washburn’s car was initially headed northbound on Highway 111, when it veered to the left into opposing traffic. Washburn told a California Highway Patrol officer shortly after the crash that he “did not know what happened” and he “did not know what direction he was traveling,” according to an arrest warrant declaration.