Ex-Palm Desert coach convicted of murder in DUI crash that killed pedestrian walking dog

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) - A former Palm Desert High School football coach who ran over and killed a 64-year-old caregiver while driving under the influence was convicted today of murder.

A Riverside jury deliberated roughly two days before finding 33-year-old Cameron Francis Curtis of Palm Desert guilty of fatally striking Nancy Valdes, also of Palm Desert, in 2023.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 9 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.   

Curtis is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.   

Sheriff's Deputy Page Broughton testified in the defendant's October 2023 preliminary hearing that on the evening of March 4, 2023, there was a call to investigate reports of a pedestrian down, and the deputy found Valdes dead at the intersection of Calliandra Street and Alamo Drive.

Broughton said Curtis was stopped nearby in his Nissan Frontier pickup. He was detained without incident.   

Valdes was a caretaker for a local senior and had just left to walk the woman's dog when she was hit while crossing the street, according to Broughton. Detectives later determined Curtis had been drinking alone that afternoon for almost three hours at Stuft Pizza, two miles from where the victim was hit.  

Based on restaurant receipts, the defendant drank 91 ounces of beer and two shots of hard liquor before leaving. A bartender told detectives that Curtis was a regular and routinely sat alone at the bar for hours.

Deputy Joshua Kemper testified when he arrived at the fatality, Curtis told him he was aware of what he'd done, displaying "bloodshot watery eyes, slurred speech, (and) strong odor of alcohol emitting from his breath."  

Though the defendant had no driving under the influence convictions, by way of his then-position as a teacher and athletics coach, he had participated in "Every 15 Minutes'' programs, which provide beginning-to-end re-enactments of DUI tragedies, complete with emergency medical treatment, an arrest, conviction and burial service -- all for the benefit of high school students learning the rules of the road.   

Prosecutors said during his two-mile trip home, Curtis maneuvered around traffic to avoid a stoplight and then blew through a stop sign on eastbound Calliandra before hitting the victim.

The defendant is no longer employed by the Desert Sands Unified School District. He had no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.