DUI manslaughter charges filed against 19-year-old for double fatal crash
A suspected 19-year-old drunken driver who allegedly caused a head-on crash that killed two people north of Desert Center was charged today with eight felonies, including two counts of DUI gross vehicular manslaughter.
Austin Bly Ellington, of Anza, is accused in the June 29 crash on state Route 62, east of state Route 177.
According to California Highway Patrol Officer Jackie Quintero, at 9:27 p.m., Ellington was driving a white Dodge Ram east on state Route 62 that drifted into the westbound lane and slammed head-on into a red Dodge Ram driven by 57-year-old Banning resident David Brian Chance, who died at the scene.
Mariah Garcia, 20, of Anza, was riding in Ellington’s truck and also died at the scene, Quintero said. Ellington and another of his passengers were airlifted to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs with major injuries.
Ellington, charged with two counts of DUI gross vehicular manslaughter and six counts of DUI causing injury, was taken into custody Tuesday at the hospital, according to county jail records. He was slated to be arraigned in an Indio courtroom today, but was not medically cleared to appear. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Dean Benjamini set bail Thursday at $220,000.
The crash was one of three fatal vehicle incidents in less than a day in the Desert Center area.
Just hours following the head-on crash, Jose Antonio Gutierrez-Avila, 67, of Ciudad Juarez, was killed when the big rig he was riding in tumbled down an embankment off Interstate 10 in Desert Center.
Gutierrez-Avila, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the truck and died at the scene of the 11:05 p.m. crash on eastbound Interstate 10, about a mile west of state Route 177.
California Highway Patrol Officer Jackie Quintero said Gutierrez-Avila was a passenger in the big rig, which was driven by a 43-year-old Mexican man who was hospitalized with moderate injuries.
Seven hours later, a third crash killed a 55-year-old Idaho man, who stopped his big rig on the side of eastbound Interstate 10, west of Eagle Mountain Road at 6:22 a.m. Saturday.
The victim was struck by a U-Haul truck after exiting his Freightliner, according to Quintero. He was taken to John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio, where he later died.
The U-Haul driver and a passenger were uninjured, Quintero said.
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