SANTA ANA, Calif. – A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to a year in jail for a deadly collision with a motorcyclist in Stanton, according to court records obtained Wednesday.
Danny Acosta Avila pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. He accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Scott Steiner, who sentenced Avila to 364 days in jail and gave him until July 21 to report to jail, according to court records.
Avila killed 29-year-old Derrick Ward on Aug. 25, 2020, on Knott Avenue just north of Katella Avenue in Stanton.
Avila was driving a GMC pickup truck north on Knott, straddling the lines separating the right turn pocket from the No. 2 northbound lane when he cut sharply across into the first lane into the path of Ward, who slammed into the truck, according to prosecutors in court papers.
Avila had just picked up his girlfriend from a shopping center at Katella and Knott and intended to make a U-turn but never got to that point, his attorney, Naiem Ray Dinari, said in court papers.
Avila wrote a letter expressing his remorse to the victim’s mother.
