Napa Mother Charged In Crash That Killed Her 2 Children: DA

NAPA, CA — A Napa mother has been charged in a crash that claimed the lives of her two young children, Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley announced late Tuesday afternoon.

Yesica Barajas, 31, is charged with two felony counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, two felony counts of child abuse, and a felony count of driving under the influence of alcohol and a drug causing injury in the suspected DUI-related crash Sunday morning.

Her son and daughter, identified as 10-year-old Damien Montanez and 9-year-old Aaliyah Montanez, died just after 7 a.m. Sunday. The car Barajas was driving left the roadway and struck a tree at the southbound state Highway 29 offramp to West Imola Avenue, the Napa County Coroner's Office said.

Barajas, a resident of Napa, remained hospitalized Tuesday, recovering from injuries suffered during the crash. She was administratively booked into the Napa County Department of Corrections and is to be transported to jail upon her release from the hospital.

Napa County Deputy District Attorney Katie Susemihl is prosecuting the case against Barajas and appeared in court Tuesday afternoon to request bail set at $2 million.

Napa County Superior Court Judge Elia Ortiz provisionally appointed a public defender to represent Barajas and set her bail amount at $1.5 million, to be revisited during Barajas’ next court appearance
scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Friday

Barajas additionally faces allegations that the crimes encompassed serious felonies, great
bodily injury, bodily injury to more than one victim, vulnerable victims, that she was in a position
of trust, and that the crimes constitute an increased level of seriousness from her prior crimes.

—Bay City News Service contributed to this report.