Driver Admits To Fatally Striking Palm Springs Bicyclist In 2020

PALM SPRINGS, CA — A 34-year-old woman who fatally struck a bicyclist in Desert Hot Springs and fled the scene pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years probation.

Yesenia Bibriesca pleaded guilty at the Larson Justice Center in Indio Monday to one felony count of hit-and-run causing death, according to court records. She also pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count each of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence and destroying evidence.

She was immediately sentenced to two years of formal probation, according to court records.

According to the Desert Hot Springs Police Department, police officers responded to the crash scene on Two Bunch Palms Trail near Little Morongo Road at about 5:50 a.m. on July 8, 2020.

Bibriesca was behind the wheel of a Lexus sedan that struck 43-year- old Christopher Jones of Palm Springs. She was arrested a few days after the collision.

Jones was riding his bike in the middle of the roadway when he was fatally struck, according to police. Officers found the victim dead and his totaled bicycle nearby.

Following the crash, police began searching for a maroon Lexus sedan, which they identified as a being connected to the crash through "investigative leads."

The investigation led police to the 16200 block of Avenida Ramada, near Desert Hot Springs, where a maroon Lexus sedan was located. Bibriesca told police she was the owner, according to police, who say Bibriesca "was determined to be the driver of the Lexus at the time of the collision and the Lexus was the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run traffic collision."

Bibriesca has no other documented felony convictions in Riverside County.