After two deadlocked juries, a San Diego judge ruled last week that illegal alien Constantino Banda Acosta will not face a third trial on allegations that he was drunk when he allegedly slammed into a family sedan and left a six-year-old child with a fractured skull.
Acosta, 39, had been deported seventeen times according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Juries in the case considered counts of felony hit and run causing serious injury and driving under the influence of alcohol. They have come back deadlocked twice, once last September and again just last week.
While the juries could not come to a decision on the felony charges, the September jury did convict Acosta on misdemeanor charges of “vandalism, battery and driving without a license.” His sentence factored in the two years he has already served.
Six-year-old Lennox Lake sustained a fractured skull as a result of the May 6 crash.
Deputy District Attorney Christopher Chandler contended that Acosta was behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Silverado when he ran a stop sign and rammed the side of the Lake family sedan. The Tribune reported that Acosta was the one Border Patrol agents removed from the truck just two miles beyond the scene of the collision.
Acosta’s Deputy Public Defender Juliana Humphrey contended that Jorge Adame Ariza was the man behind the wheel, arguing that he had been seen behind the wheel on a surveillance camera earlier that night.
Adame, also in the U.S. illegally, testified that Acosta was the one who ran into the Lake family.
A separate trial of an illegal alien DUI fatal hit and run in San Diego County began on Thursday. Esteysi Sanchez has been accused of driving drunk in June 2016 when she drove onto a sidewalk and hit homeless man Jack Tenhulzen, kept on driving for half a mile with the man lodged in her vehicle, abandoned the car, and fled to her home where she was discovered by authorities. Tenhulzen died.
After many delays, the trial got underway on Thursday at the Vista Courthouse in north San Diego County.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana.
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