An Orange County driver who pleaded guilty to killing a pregnant woman while driving under the influence of a combination of drugs in 2020 was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday.
The Orange County District Attorney's Office said Courtney Fritz Pandolfi, 44, already had multiple DUI convictions when she got behind the wheel on August 11, 2020, while under the influence of a combination of drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamine, and died. He is 23 years old. -Old Yesenia Aguilar.
Aguilar was eight months pregnant and was walking with her husband in Anaheim when Pandolfi jumped her SUV, hitting a metal newspaper rack before turning toward the couple and striking Aguilar.
Pandolfi continued driving an additional 347 feet without braking before her Jeep broke down, prosecutors said.
Baby Adaline Rose was born alive by emergency caesarean section.
“A beautiful little girl came into the world fighting hard to survive the tragedy that took her mother's life, and the strength the little girl showed gave her father the will to live,” Orange County said. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
“Adalyn Rose's first breath will be forever intertwined with her mother's last breath, but that little girl will grow up knowing that her mother's last act on Earth was to do everything in her power to protect her unborn child,” Spitzer continued.
Pandolfi, of Garden Grove, pleaded guilty in February to murder and a variety of other charges, including felony driving under the influence causing bodily injury and two misdemeanors for driving on a suspended license. Some of the charges stem from Pandolfi driving under the influence in November 2019.
Pandolfi was also convicted of DUI in 2008, 2015 and 2016, and received formal legal warnings each time that she could be charged with murder if she continued to kill someone while driving under the influence, prosecutors said.
“Today my client accomplished what she wanted to do, which was to spare the family the further grief and pain of a trial,” Pandolfi's attorney, Fred Facinelli, said when she pleaded guilty in February. “She realizes that this was a tragic situation of her own making.”
Aguilar's widower, James Alvarez, posted a video on social media showing him leaving the courtroom with his daughter, now 3 years old, after the ruling. He wrote that after “the most difficult 3 years [he’d] “I had to endure,” it was “finally over.”
“I can finally close this chapter of my life,” Alvarez wrote on Instagram. “The killer of my late wife has finally received the maximum sentence. Although 15 years to live is not enough, I can finally breathe after fighting for so long to get the justice we deserve. …and [I] She will continue to fight to make sure she never gets out.
He continued: “I was given a second chance at life because I could have died as well… so I will take advantage of this second chance to do good in this world.” I am going [to be] The voice and strength of every person who has lost a loved one due to someone else's selfish actions.
