A drunken driver who killed a toddler walking in an unmarked crosswalk in City Heights last year was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years to life in prison, prosecutors said.
Margarito Angeles Vargas, 47, was driving with a blood-alcohol level of more than double the legal limit when his Toyota 4Runner struck 19-month old Annaleeh Rodarte on Sept. 24, 2022.
The girl was crossing Redwood Street about midway down the block with her siblings when she was struck. Annaleeh was taken to a hospital, where she died the following morning.
Angeles Vargas fled the scene in his SUV, but a witness chased down the vehicle and confronted the driver, prosecutors said. The good Samaritan took a cellphone picture of Angeles Vargas and recorded his license plate number.
Police arrested Angeles Vargas later that day at his home in the Bay Terraces neighborhood.
“DUI and drugged drivers have taken so many innocent lives this year and while every loss is devastating, the senseless DUI murder of a 1-year-old child is beyond deplorable,” District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a news release. “It is also unconscionable that the driver fled the scene, but thanks to the courage and concern of the good Samaritan neighbor … the defendant was brought to justice.”
Marie Maloney, Angeles Vargas’ defense attorney, argued during the trial that the collision was “unavoidable.” The defense attorney said her client was unable to see the girl in the roadway because of the girl’s height and Angeles Vargas’ vantage point behind the wheel.
Maloney also argued that the pothole-riddled roadway on Redwood Street made for bumpy travel and affected visibility for drivers.
On Nov. 15, a jury found Angeles Vargas guilty of second-degree murder, a charge brought by prosecutors because he had been convicted of drunken driving in 2016. After his previous conviction, Angeles Vargas signed a Watson advisement, an agreement that says if he was involved in another DUI in the future and kills someone, he can be charged with murder.
The jury also found him guilty of other charges including gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI causing injury, hit and run causing death and driving on a suspended license.
“Let this be a warning that drinking and driving can not only take a life but can end with a life prison sentence,” Stephan said.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Robert Amador sentenced Angeles Vargas to the maximum sentence. Amador justified his sentencing by arguing that Angeles Vargas left the scene “because he didn’t want to face the consequences” of his crimes.
City News Service contributed to this report.
