{"id":2010004,"date":"2023-08-23T21:22:41","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T01:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/man-found-guilty-in-wrong-way-fatal-crash-in-orange-county\/"},"modified":"2023-08-23T21:24:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T01:24:43","slug":"man-found-guilty-in-wrong-way-fatal-crash-in-orange-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/man-found-guilty-in-wrong-way-fatal-crash-in-orange-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Man convicted for deadly wrong-way crash in Orange County."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fman-found-guilty-in-wrong-way-fatal-crash-in-orange-county%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2010004&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Suspect Found Guilty in Fatal Wrong-Way Crash<\/h2>\n<p>In a shocking turn of events, Pedro Pantoja Jr., a \u200bDiamond Bar man with a\u200d history of driving under the influence, has \u2064been convicted \u200dof triggering a fatal wrong-way crash on the border of Irvine and Tustin. The incident occurred while he \u200bwas attempting to evade police.<\/p>\n<p>Pantoja, 31, has been found guilty of several charges, including second-degree\u2064 murder, driving under the\u2063 influence of\u200c a drug causing injury, unlawful taking of\u2063 a vehicle,\u200c and evading \u2064a peace officer-reckless driving. Additionally, he faces misdemeanor counts\u200b for possession of drug paraphernalia and driving on a suspended or revoked driver&#8217;s license due to a previous \u2063DUI.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, jurors have confirmed the allegation that Pantoja inflicted great \u2062bodily injury on a\u2064 woman who was a passenger in his car.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Related Stories<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/santa-ana-councilwoman-lopez-to-face-recall-election-in-november-5476425\">Santa Ana Councilwoman Lopez to Face Recall Election in November<\/a><br \/>\n      <br \/>\n      <span class=\"text-comp-caption\">8\/18\/2023<\/span>\n    <\/li>\n<li>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/ex-anaheim-mayor-sidhu-to-plead-guilty-to-federal-corruption-charges-5471236\">Ex-Anaheim Mayor Sidhu to Plead Guilty to\u2063 Federal Corruption Charges<\/a><br \/>\n      <br \/>\n      <span class=\"text-comp-caption\">8\/16\/2023<\/span>\n    <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Pantoja is set\u2062 to be sentenced on October 20.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, this is not Pantoja&#8217;s first encounter with the law. He has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/suspected-waukesha-murderer-was-assessed-top-risk-for-violence-was-released-by-leftist-da-anyway\/\" title=\"Suspected Waukesha Murderer Was Assessed Top Risk For Violence, Was Released By Leftist DA Anyway\">prior felony conviction<\/a> for leading police on a chase in 2017 and a previous DUI offense in Riverside back in 2013, \u2063according to \u200cDeputy District Attorney Brian Orue.<\/p>\n<p>The incident leading to Pantoja&#8217;s conviction unfolded\u2062 when\u200d Tustin police received a call on April 18, 2021, about a driver who appeared to be unconscious in an In-N-Out drive-thru at \u2063the District at Tustin Legacy shopping center.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors \u2062revealed that Pantoja fled from Tustin police in a stolen vehicle, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/man-found-guilty-in-wrong-way-fatal-crash-in-orange-county\/\" title=\"Man convicted for deadly wrong-way crash in Orange County.\">reaching dangerously high speeds<\/a> even as \u200cother drivers were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chicago-police-deputy-chief-orders-tactical-teams-to-fight-carjackings-by-pumping-gas-for-residents\/\" title=\"Chicago Police Deputy Chief Orders Tactical Teams To Fight Carjackings By Pumping Gas For Residents\">pumping gas<\/a> at a nearby \u200bCostco\u2062 gas station. He further disregarded traffic signals, ultimately driving northbound in the southbound lanes of \u2064Jamboree Road.<\/p>\n<p>Tragically, Pantoja&#8217;s reckless actions resulted in a head-on collision with a vehicle driven by 62-year-old David Kawashima of Orange near Jamboree and Warner Avenue. Regrettably, Mr. \u200bKawashima lost his life at the scene.<\/p>\n<p>Following the crash, Pantoja and the woman in his car were both \u200chospitalized.\u200d Fortunately, the woman&#8217;s injuries were not\u200c life-threatening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Diamond Bar man, previously convicted of DUI, was found guilty on Aug. 23 in Santa Ana for causing a deadly wrong-way crash near Irvine and Tustin while evading police. Pedro Pantoja Jr., 31, was convicted of second-degree murder and DUI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":2010005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2010004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2010004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2010005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2010004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2010004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2010004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}