Drunk driver, 24, sentenced to six years for fatal wrong-way crash near kearny mesa

A drunken driver who drove the wrong way on state Route 52 near Kearny Mesa and crashed head-on into another vehicle, killing that motorist, was sentenced today to six years in state prison.

Maricela Diaz, 24, pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and other charges for the Aug. 26, 2022 crash that killed 49-year-old El Cajon resident Roberto Sanchez.

According to the California Highway Patrol, Diaz’s pickup truck was heading eastbound when it crashed into the victim’s westbound car just after 2:30 a.m. Deputy District Attorney Laura

Evans, who argued for a sentence of 10 years on Tuesday, said Diaz was driving with a blood-alcohol content of around three times the legal driving limit and also had cocaine in her system.

The prosecutor said Diaz left a bar and got behind the wheel, drove onto a freeway the wrong way, exited and re-entered the freeway while still driving the wrong direction. In court, Diaz

told Sanchez’s family, “Last year on Aug. 26, I made the most selfish and thoughtless decision of my life. Not a day goes by that I haven’t thought about the pain I’ve inflicted upon your

family and how I wish I could take it all back.” Among Sanchez’s family members who attended the sentencing hearing was his fiancee, Liliana Flores. She said they were set to get married

last September, not long after Sanchez was killed.    “I lost the love of my life,” Flores said. “Everything changed for me when I found out what had happened to my Roberto. For a moment, I

did not believe it. I thought it was all a nightmare. That he was going to return like always. As of today, I still feel that he’s going to enter through that door and tell me that

everything will be fine, as he has always told me.”