Just after 1 a.m. on November 5, 2023, a vehicle driven by Jordan Lopez, then 24 years old, crashed in two vehicles along Boulevard Clairemont Mesa.
San Diego police responded to the accident and found Lopez on the scene. He was then arrested for suspicion of conduct under influence.
The two vehicles that Lopez hit, including a mini-duties Honda Odyssey, were towed “because they were filled with goods,” the police said in the incident report.
A month later, a worker from the Touring Court noticed that an odor emanating from the Mini-Fourgunnette and contacted the police.
Inside has been found the body of Monica Cameroni of Adams, 65, who was homeless and who had lived in her vehicle in San Diego for several years.
On Wednesday, Lopez was sentenced to probation, with a sentence of six years in prison suspended at five years, and sentenced to finish a work program after pleading guilty to Dui, causing injuries and having a blood alcohol of more than 0.15%.
Lopez could face an accusation of murder if he violates the terms of his probation.
“I will not waste the opportunity,” said Lopez in San Diego, judge of the Superior Court Dwane K. Moring during his appearance. He also offered his apologies to the children of the victim who were present at the audience by videoconference.
The family made no comments during the procedure.
The conviction comes as the children of Cameroni of Adams are preparing legal action against the city claiming the negligence of not having discovered their mother in his vehicle immediately after the accident.
In a complaint against the city last November, the family alleged that the police “had not looked inside” of the vehicle to find Cameroni of Adams who had “suffered injuries by severe but survivable force of the collision which required medical care and care”.
The city rejected the complaint in November, but lawyer Carlos Hernandez said the family planned to take legal action within six months of rejection.
According to the complaint, the daughter of Cameroni of Adams submitted a report of people who were missing on November 14, 2023, after they and her family sent birthday messages to her mother but received no response. His daughter also searched for the van and had not managed to locate it before submitting the report.
On December 6, more than a month after Clairemont's accident, a worker from the Touring Court noticed an odor from the van and contacted the police.
After entering the vehicle, Cameroni of Adams was found “under various articles in the row of the vehicle's middle”, according to the medical examiner's report.
The cause of death was judged as injuries by multiple blunt force – it was found with rib fractures and a fracture of the spine – and the mode of death was judged by an accident by the medical examiner.
The complaint alleges negligence and reckless conduct on behalf of the San Diego police officers who responded to the scene while “the deceased remained injured inside his vehicle in the second row” and “left trapped inside his vehicle without care necessary for his injuries, which later caused him death”.
“The most basic examination of a vehicle should include the audit checks,” said lawyer John C. Carpenter in a statement. “Instead, they towed the van, mainly buried Monica living.”
The Office of the Prosecutor of the City of San Diego and the San Diego police department refused to comment on the incident citing the current dispute.
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