DA Bashes 'Early Release' Of Seal Beach DUI Driver Who Killed 2

SANTA ANA, CA — Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer joined state Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones Wednesday in decrying the potential early release of a man convicted in an alcohol-fueled crash that killed two people in Seal Beach in November 2021.

Oscar Eduardo Ortega Anguiano pleaded guilty to two felony counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated as well as a misdemeanor count of driving without a valid driver license. Ortega Anguiano had 334 days credit behind bars when he was sentenced April 28, 2022, to 10 years in prison.

He is eligible for release in July of this year, according to the state Department of Corrections.

"A convicted felon who was twice previously deported is being released after serving just a fraction of his sentence for killing two 19-year- olds because California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature refuse to hold criminals accountable," Spitzer said in a statement.

Spitzer said his office objected to the plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Kazuharu Makino. According to the defendant's plea form, he was eligible for up to 12 years and six months behind bars.

Spitzer criticized the state's law that does not consider the offense a "violent" one, allowing for one day credit for each day served if the inmate behaves behind bars.

"Killing two human beings while drunk is anything but non-violent," Spitzer said.

Spitzer lamented that state lawmakers have "killed" bills he has lobbied for that would eliminate those credits.

"California's creative concoction of good time, education, and other credits has resulted in criminals being released quicker than ever before, fulfilling Gov. Newsom's plot to empty California's prisons and put dangerous and violent felons back on the street," Spitzer said.

Newsom's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Absolutely heartbreaking," Jones said in a news release. "The deaths of Anya Varfolomeev and Nikolay Osokin were entirely preventable. California's sanctuary state policies and soft-on-crime approach are to blame."

Jones was also critical of state laws discouraging coordination with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for the deportation of convicts.

"Even worse, because of our sanctuary laws, there is no guarantee this violent offender will be handed over to ICE," Jones said. "He could end up right back in our communities, as he has before, putting more lives at risk. Unacceptable."

Ortega Anguiano pleaded guilty to a felony count of false imprisonment effected by violence, menace, fraud or deceit and a misdemeanor count of battery on Feb. 28, 2014. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison, according to court records.

The fatal DUI crash happened on Nov. 13, 2021, on the San Diego (405) Freeway's Seal Beach Boulevard off-ramp when the victims' vehicle caught fire following a crash just before midnight.

UCI professor Tony Smith, an expert on political science and the law, told City News Service the deal Ortega Anguiano received was typical.

"There's nothing unusual about this outcome and (it) had nothing to do with him being undocumented," Smith said.

Smith called it "disingenuous" for Republican politicians to publicly complain about alleged lax treatment of criminals and sanctuary policies when "the president has been convicted of 34 felonies and didn't get any penalties at all." He also noted that Republicans have not complained about Trump pardoning everyone convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.

"If they're so concerned about injustice they might want to talk about an innocent person who's in a concentration camp in El Salvador," Smith said, referring to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador despite a judge's 2019 order barring him from being sent there. The Trump administration has accused him of being a member of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang, but Abrego Garcia has been ordered returned to the United States with the Supreme Court largely upholding the judge's ruling.

City News Service