A drunk driver who is accused of killing a Chula Vista man and a second passenger in 2014 was driving with a .27 blood/alcohol level, which is more than three times the legal limit, a witness testified Friday.
Testimony began last week in the trial of Mario Alberto Carranza, 28, who is charged with both second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter in the deaths of passengers Carlos Kristopher Vargas, 20, of Chula Vista, and Monica Lupercio, 20, of San Diego.
Carranza drove them to a party at an Alpine residence on April 19, 2014, and he spent the night in a bathtub, apparently thinking he would sleep off the effects of drinking alcohol. However, he was still intoxicated at 7:30 a.m. when he started to drive them home and lost control of his vehicle on Interstate 8 in Blossom Valley.
He drifted onto the center divider, overcorrected, and drove through a chain link fence. His Nissan overturned in a concrete culvert.
A jury of six men, six women, and three male alternates were sworn in June 22 to hear his trial, which is expected to last several weeks before El Cajon Superior Court Judge Ronald Frazier.
Raegan Carter, a criminalist in the sheriff’s crime lab, testified June 24 that two samples of Carranza’s blood was taken hours after the crash. One sample tested at .278 and the second one tested at .275, she said.
Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright asked Carter at what level does a blood/alcohol level get before it affects a person’s driving. Carter said drivers are impaired at .05, in her opinion. The felony legal limit is .08.
Carter is considered an expert witness as she said she has analyzed 30,000 samples while at the sheriff’s crime lab for the last 11 years. She has testified approximately 350 times, she said.
It will be up to a jury to decide if the crash was murder, vehicular manslaughter, or an accident. He was charged with murder because he was convicted of misdemeanor drunk driving in 2007 and is alleged to have known the risks of drunk driving.
A judge has earlier ruled that Carranza is mentally competent to stand trial. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in jail on $1 million bail.
