SANTA ANA, Calif., August 30, 2012  – According to the Orange County, California District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, a drunken driver will be arraigned tomorrow for killing a woman by crashing into her motorcycle after making an unsafe turn into an intersection. Steven Todd Newcomer, 44, Santa Ana, is charged with one felony count each of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated without gross negligence and hit and run causing death. He faces a maximum sentence of nine years in state prison if convicted. Newcomer is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012, at 8:30 a.m. in Department C-55, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
At approximately 8:40 p.m. on April 12, 2012, 32-year-old Kimberly Krause was riding her motorcycle eastbound on Chapman Avenue approaching the intersection at Pioneer Lane in Garden Grove. Newcomer is accused of driving while under the influence of alcohol westbound on Chapman Avenue toward the same intersection.
As Krause legally passed through the intersection on a green light, Newcomer is accused of making a left turn in front of the victim without yielding to oncoming traffic. The defendant is accused of crashing into the victim and throwing her from her motorcycle. Newcomer is accused of briefly stopping at the scene before fleeing into a nearby residential complex to a friend’s home. He is accused of failing to call 911 to seek help for the victim.
Officers from the Garden Grove Police Department (GGPD), who investigated this case, responded to the scene and located Krause lying at the corner of the intersection. She was transported to the University of California, Irvine Medical Center and pronounced dead at 9:01 p.m. due to multiple blunt force traumatic injuries.
Approximately 10 minutes after the crash, Newcomer is accused of being located by GGPD walking inside the residential complex near the crime scene. He is accused of displaying objective signs of alcohol intoxication including bloodshot eyes and emitting a strong odor of alcohol. At midnight, over three hours after the crash, the defendant is accused of having a blood alcohol level of .14 percent. Deputy District Attorney Nancy Hayashida of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.