A 21-year-old man pleaded guilty Tuesday to gross vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving in a crash that killed a 12-year-old boy blocks from the Oceanside Pier on the Fourth of July last year.
Edward Minot, who at the time of the crash was a 20-year-old Camp Pendleton Marine, agreed to a plea deal that calls for him to be sentenced to 13 years, eight months in prison, the maximum allowable sentence for the charges to which he admitted.
Minot is slated to be sentenced April 17, Deputy District Attorney David Uyar said.
The crash also injured the 6-year-old brother of the boy who was killed, identified in court documents as Santiago. Minot and two of Minot’s passengers were also injured. When Minot was arraigned in Vista Superior Court days later, it was done via video from his hospital room.
In pleading guilty, Minot admitted his blood-alcohol content was .14 percent, Uyar said. In California, the legal limit for driving is .08 percent for people age 21 and older.
Few details of the case have been discussed in court or made public. Minot’s guilty plea came on the same day he was scheduled to have his preliminary hearing.
At the time of the crash, Oceanside police said in a news release that someone had flagged down an officer about 11 p.m. July 4 to report seeing a white Volkswagen GTI driving without its lights on near Mission Avenue and North Myers Street, near the pier.
The officer caught up with the GTI and tried to pull it over, but the driver took off, headed north on Myers Street, police said.
Seconds later, according to police, the GTI broadsided the passenger side of a Nissan Altima headed east on Surfrider Way.
Santiago died. His younger brother and the 27-year-old driver of the Nissan were injured.
