Half Moon Bay Man Sentenced To 1 Year In Jail For Fatality

REDWOOD CITY, CA -- A 31-year-old man was sentenced Friday to a year in the county jail for hitting and killing a bicyclist on state Highway 1 near Half Moon Bay last year and dragging the bicycle for a mile, San Mateo County prosecutors said.

Angel Gabriel Gongora-Mis, a Half Moon Bay resident, struck 44-year-old Edward Wade on April 29, 2017, on northbound Highway 1 near Furtado Lane. Wade was knocked off his bike and died.

His bicycle got caught underneath Gongora-Mis' vehicle as he drove away from the scene. San Mateo County sheriff's deputies found him about a mile away with the bicycle still
caught under his car, prosecutors said. Gongora-Mis claimed he did not know he had struck a bicyclist and thought he had merely hit a guardrail. Prosecutors delayed charging him for
about nine months and did not find any evidence of impairment or inattention due to cellphone use.

He entered a no contest plea in September to felony hit-and-run causing death on the condition of receiving the one-year county jail sentence.

The plea deal was with San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Garratt rather than prosecutors, who had sought a sentence of up to two years in state prison. He was remanded into custody after today's sentencing and has six days credit for time served. He will also serve three years of probation and will return to court for a restitution hearing on Dec. 13, Chief Deputy
District Attorney Al Serrato said.

Gongora-Mis' defense attorney Maria Fonseca was not immediately available to comment on the case.

--Bay City News/Image via Shutterstock