Elderly man sentenced for manslaughter

Orlando Espejo

A seventy-four four year old retiree was also in court today, but for sentencing. Orlando Espejo, also known as “Landy”, was convicted on Friday of Manslaughter by Negligence and Negligent Grievous Harm. At his age, the prospect to going to prison is a frightening one, but Espejo was spared by Justice Adolph Lucas, who imposed a non-custodial sentence. The decision was handed down after two character witnesses, Paul Rodriguez and Ariel Mitchell, spoke well of Espejo’s character. Also considering his clean police record, Justice Lucas told Espejo that prison is not the place for him, since he doesn’t require rehabilitation. The judge did note, however, that he was speeding at the time of the accident. With that, Espejo was fined ten thousand dollars for Manslaughter by Negligence and an additional one thousand dollars for Negligent Grievous Harm. The deadline for payment is June twelfth, 2012 and in default, a prison term of one year, three months will be imposed. Espejo has also been permanently banned from obtaining a driver’s license. The fatal accident was back on June thirteenth, 2009 when Espejo’s Mazda 626 collided head on with an Isuzu D-max pickup near Gardenia Village. The driver of the pickup, Vicente Rivera died within minutes, while his common-law-wife Jamilet Rubio suffered a fractured sternum and pelvis. The Rivera and Rubio families are pursuing a civil suit against Espejo.