San Diego, CA
Alleged drunken driver accused in 8-year-old girl’s death in East County has prior DUI conviction
A man accused of driving a pickup while intoxicated, crashing head-on into a car in rural East County and killing an 8-year-old girl over the weekend, was in the country illegally and had been previously convicted of being the driver in a DUI crash that left a person paralyzed, according to authorities.
Brayan Josue Alva Rodriguez, 25, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and gross vehicular manslaughter in connection with Sunday’s crash on county Highway S-2, also known as San Felipe Road, near Ranchita, according to the District Attorney’s Office. He was among several injured in the crash and was arraigned in the hospital this week.
Alva, a Guatemalan national, was arrested by Border Patrol in Calexico in 2018 and released after being served with a notice to appear before an immigration judge, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
While in immigration proceedings, he was charged in connection with a DUI crash in 2020 and later convicted.
An immigration judge ordered him removed from the country in 2023, but he did not leave, ICE said.
“Now an innocent life has been lost in a tragedy that could have been prevented,” ICE’s San Diego office said on social media.
The girl who was killed Sunday was identified in court documents as Aria T. Her full name has not been released.
The crash occurred around 3 p.m. Sunday, when a 2025 Toyota Tacoma, allegedly driven by Alva, crossed over the solid double-yellow line on San Felipe and struck a southbound Toyota Camry head-on, according to the California Highway Patrol. The truck then crashed into the right side of a Ford F-350 pulling a utility trailer ahead of him that was also driving north, officials said.
The Tacoma then rolled over and caught fire. Alva and a 24-year-old passenger were able to get out of the burning truck on their own, according to Cal Fire.
All occupants of the Camry were taken to hospitals: the driver, a 26-year-old man from Yuma; his front passenger, a 28-year-old woman; and three children in the back, a 5-year-old boy, a 4-year-old boy and the girl who died.
A 13-year-old rear passenger in the Ford truck also sustained minor injuries, the CHP said.
Besides murder and gross vehicular manslaughter counts, Alva, an Oceanside resident, also faces two additional charges of driving while intoxicated within 10 years of a DUI conviction.
In the 2020 crash, at least four people, including a child under the age of 5, were injured, according to the complaint. One victim “suffered paralysis of a permanent nature,” the complaint says. Further details about that case, including Alva’s sentence following conviction, were not immediately available.
At this week’s arraignment, a district attorney’s spokesperson said bail was set at $2 million. Alva was expected to be booked into jail upon being released from the hospital. The extent of his injuries was not released. The next court hearing has been set for Jan. 7.
ICE officials said they would be requesting an immigration detainer — which would allow federal agents to take a person into custody before their release from a local jail.
The California Values Act, or Senate Bill 54, limits cooperation between local law enforcement and immigration agencies, although there are exceptions for those who have been convicted of certain serious or violent felonies.
Staff writer Karen Kucher contributed to this report.
San Diego, CA
SDPD investigating suspicious death
UNIVERSITY CITY (KGTV) — San Diego police are investigating the death of an 81-year-old woman who was found unresponsive in her apartment in the 6300 block of Genesee Avenue.
Officers and San Diego Fire-Rescue personnel responded to a 9-1-1 call at about 11:56 p.m. on March 6.
First responders found the woman in her bedroom, unresponsive and “positioned awkwardly on a bed.” Despite immediate life-saving efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives from the San Diego Police Department’s Homicide Unit were called to the scene due to “unusual circumstances,” police said. The cause and manner of death remain undetermined.
Investigators are working with the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine what happened.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
This story has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
San Diego, CA
One killed in fiery three-vehicle crash on 805 freeway in San Diego
A person was killed Sunday in a fiery three-vehicle crash on the Jacob Dekema (805) Freeway in San Diego, authorities said.
The crash occurred at 4:22 a.m. Sunday on the northbound freeway south of Miramar Road, the California Highway Patrol reported.
At least one vehicle struck the center divider and caught fire, the CHP said.
The numbers one through five lanes of the northbound freeway were closed at 6:01 a.m. for an unknown duration.
No further information was immediately available.
San Diego, CA
Veterans weigh in on U.S. involvement in Iran
“It seems pointless. They change the reason for aggression against Iran daily,” Army Veteran, Forest Gray said.
Gray was among dozens of protestors who gathered at Memorial Community Park in Logan Heights Saturday calling for an end to the war in Iran.
Seeing the conflict play out is personal for him. Gray served eight years in the front lines in the Middle East.
“I fought in Iraq and you know, everyone wears the uniform, and gets deployed, we kind of expect and accept that we have to put our lives on the line, but ideally it should be a sense for a greater good. I don’t see what greater good there is here,” Gray said.
Gray is not alone.
Jonathan Chavez who served in the U.S. Marine Corps at Miramar Base in San Diego also disagrees with the U.S. involvement in Iran.
“No one wants these wars, no one has asked for these wars. Public opinion in this country is also very clear, the vast majority of Americans do not support these conflicts,” Chavez said.
Some Iranian Americans took a different stance last week, as hundreds took the streets of Clairemont.
“It was a feeling of euphoria knowing that my people are free, knowing that a dictator that has ruled Iran with iron fists for well over 37 years, has been killed, has been pushed out of the power and we can have a democratic Iran,” Bobby Shah told NBC 7.
Despite the sentiment, Saturday’s protest was hosted by an organization opposed to war in the Middle East.
They used signs and chants to make their stance clear: Stop the War in Iran.
Watching from a distance we found Marine Corps Veteran Chris Mondestin.
Even though he was not part of the protest, he also opposes the war saying the conflict should stay between Iran and Israel and the U.S. should stay out of it.
“It’s real scary. It’s real scary because I know there’s a lot of people that are truly against this war, but they don’t have much of a voice. That’s why I was kind of happy to see this, because we do have a voice. We just got to speak loud,” Mondestin said.
He also worries about the effects the war could have on the country’s safety, economy, and relationship with countries in the Middle East.
According to Iranian Diaspora Dashboard from UCLA’s Center of Near Eastern Studies, about 600,000 Iranians live in the U.S. and about half of them are in California.
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