Calif. driver charged in fatal Halloween hit-and-run
By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON ASSOCIATED PRESS
A photograph of Andrea Gonzales is taped to a donation box at a makeshift memorial on Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, in Santa Ana, California, near where Andrea and twins Lexi and Lexandra Perez Huerta were killed in a hit-and-run on Halloween. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Photographs of twin sisters Lexia and Lexandra Perez are displayed at a makeshift memorial Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, in Santa Ana, California, near where they and Andrea Gonzales were killed in a hit-and-run on Halloween. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
This undated photo provided by the Santa Ana Police Department shows Jaquinn Ramone Bell, 31, who was arrested on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014, in Stanton, California, where he was staying in a motel with his two children. Bell was booked for investigation of felony hit-and-run causing the deaths of three teenage girls who had gone trick-or-treating on Halloween. (AP Photo/ Santa Ana Police Department)
JC Martinez of Orange, California, is emotional as she delivers three sunflowers Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, to the site where twins Lexi and Lexandra Perez Huerta and Andrea Gonzalez died after being stuck in a crosswalk by a hit-and-run driver on Halloween. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Mindy Schauer)
Brenda Gonzales holds a photograph of her younger sister Andrea who was killed in a hit-and-run accident on Halloween along with two other teenagers, Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, outside their apartment in Santa Ana, California. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Local residents look thorough the posters on the fence at Portola Middle School created to mourn Portola Middle School students Lexi and Lexandra Perez on Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, in Orange, California. The two girls and Andrea Gonzales were killed by a hit-and-run driver on Halloween. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Kyusung Gong)
Photographs of twin sisters Lexia, left, and Lexandra Perez are displayed at a makeshift memorial on Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, in Santa Ana, California, near where they and Andrea Gonzales were killed in a hit-and-run on Halloween. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Santa Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas talks with the media during a press conference Monday Nov. 3, 2014, in Santa Ana, California, announcing a suspect in the hit-and-run deaths of three girls on Halloween in Santa Ana. Jaquinn Bell, 31, was taken into custody Monday in Stanton, California. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Mindy Schauer)
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido takes part in a press conference where police announce the arrest of the suspected driver in a Halloween hit-and-run resulting in three deaths. Jaquinn Bell, 31, was taken into custody in a Stanton, California. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, )
A well-wisher places flowers at a makeshift memorial Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, in Santa Ana, California, near where three teenagers were killed in a hit-and-run accident on Halloween. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Jaquinn Bell, 31, was charged with three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, one felony count of hit-and-run with permanent injury or death and one misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended license, the Orange County district attorney’s office said.
Bell, who recently pleaded guilty to a separate hit-and-run, was scheduled for arraignment later in the day but it was postponed to Dec. 16 and he was ordered held on more than $1 million bail. If convicted, he faces up to 17 years in state prison.
The complaint also included sentencing enhancement allegations of personally inflicting great bodily injury and fleeing the scene after committing a vehicular manslaughter.
The victims of the Halloween night crash in the city of Santa Ana were twin sisters Lexi and Lexandra Perez and a friend, Andrea Gonzalez, all 13 years old.
Police said the girls were crossing a street in a marked crosswalk when they were struck by a black Honda SUV that left the scene without stopping.
Authorities believe Bell fled with his two teenage children after ditching the damaged car in a nearby parking lot. He was arrested Sunday at a motel in the city of Stanton.
Bell pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor counts of child abuse, driving under the influence and hit-and-run with property damage, online court records show. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, three years’ probation, and alcohol- and child-abuse treatment programs, a court spokeswoman said.
He has prior convictions for reckless driving, spousal injury and violation of a protective order, records show.
Trick-or-treaters were also injured and killed in collisions in New York, Florida, Washington state and the nearby Orange County city of Irvine, where 65-year-old John Alcorn died after he was struck by a car. His 4-year-old son was in critical but stable condition.
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