Jessica Loring was on the phone with her brother, Marcus Loring, when horror struck last week.
She said her brother was in good spirits and on his way home Tuesday after buying clothes for his new job at Indian Springs High School in San Bernardino when the conversation was instantly disrupted.
“I just heard him say, ‘Oh (expletive)!’ Then I heard the crash,” said Loring, 43, who shared a home with her brother in north San Bernardino.
Marcus Loring, 39, entered the intersection of Highland and Pepper avenues in Rialto in his white Honda Civic Coupe about 9:20 p.m. when he was broadsided by a stolen SUV traveling at high speed east on Highland, fleeing from police.
“Marcus! Marcus! Marcus!” Jessica Loring screamed into her phone in a panic as she heard crashing metal, then the sound of sirens getting closer over her brother’s still open phone line. “Then I heard someone saying, ‘Are you OK, buddy? Are you OK?’ ” she said. “It just keeps replaying in my mind.”
She said a police officer got on the phone and said her brother had been in a serious accident and was being taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where he died just after 10 p.m.
Repeat offender
The driver of the stolen SUV, Emanuel Ayala of Bloomington, escaped major injury in the crash. Police, prosecutors and court records indicate he has been arrested 30 times and has been in and out of prison for auto theft, narcotics and theft charges for more than a decade. His rap sheet reveals arrests in San Bernardino as well as Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties.
Ayala, who suffered only minor injuries, was arrested and booked into the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where he is being held without bail.
San Bernardino County prosecutors on Thursday charged Ayala, 33, with four felony counts: vehicular manslaughter, evading a police officer causing death, unlawfully driving or taking a vehicle without consent, and receiving a stolen vehicle. The complaint also alleges nine sentencing enhancements, including that the crime involved great violence and great bodily harm, which could increase his potential prison term if he is convicted.
Ayala pleaded not guilty to the charges during his arraignment Friday in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court. He will next appear in court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted, San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said.
Prosecutors noted in the complaint that Ayala had five prior felony auto theft convictions in San Bernardino County from October 2015 to June 2024, each resulting in prison terms of 16 months to three years. The complaint also references a sixth case filed by San Bernardino County prosecutors on Jan. 28 in which Ayala was charged with felony auto theft and evading police in Fontana. That case remains pending.
According to prosecutors, Ayala was out of custody — either on bail or released on his own recognizance — at the time of the Tuesday collision that killed Loring.
In a telephone interview, Anderson said his office will fight to ensure that bail is not set for Ayala and that he stays in custody.
“We’re aware of the serial nature of his auto theft violations,” Anderson said. “Now we have two cases of evading (police), the second one leading to a death. We don’t want this to repeat.”
Rialto Police Chief Mark Kling said Friday that California’s sentencing laws are too lenient, allowing serious offenders like Ayala to be released from jail before serving their full sentences and then reoffend.
“I’m beyond frustrated. Emanuel Ayala has been arrested 30 times over the past 10 years, in four different Southland counties, including Los Angeles, for grand theft auto, narcotics and theft,” Kling said. “I’m speaking for all law enforcement professionals, in that we are tired of lenient sentencing laws that affect community safety, put our communities at greater risk and having our officers continually rearrest habitual criminals, who frankly are heartless and do not care about the innocent people they harm.”
Record in 3 other counties
Ayala was charged in Riverside County in two separate felony cases in January and February of 2024 for possessing a stolen vehicle, unlawfully taking or driving a vehicle and burglary. Prosecutors also alleged he had prior vehicle theft convictions in Orange County in 2023 and in San Bernardino County in 2018 and 2019, court records show.
Ayala reached plea agreements in both cases, pleading guilty to burglary in one and resolving the second after an additional burglary charge was added. He was sentenced to two years in jail in each case, with the terms running concurrently, according to a district attorney’s spokesperson.
In Orange County, Ayala has two prior convictions and a pending felony case, according to court records.
In 2021, he was convicted of receiving a stolen vehicle and was sentenced to 120 days in jail and ordered to pay restitution. In 2022, Ayala was convicted of multiple felony charges, including possessing drugs for sale, transporting or selling drugs, possessing burglary tools, being a convicted felon illegally possessing ammunition, and taking lost property. He was sentenced to probation, 120 days in jail and ordered to pay restitution.
In December 2025, Ayala was charged with attempted vehicle theft, a felony. The case is still pending, and Ayala is scheduled for arraignment on April 1 in Orange County Superior Court in Fullerton.
In Los Angeles County, the District Attorney’s Office said it had no record of any felony auto theft charges or convictions against Ayala. However, Anderson said Ayala was arrested on Jan. 5, 2024, by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Walnut-Diamond Bar station after he was caught driving a stolen truck with a stolen license plate.
The outcome of that case was unclear.
Marcus Loring’s life
Jessica Loring said her brother obtained his bachelor’s degree in education from the University of La Verne in 2023 and was about to graduate from National University in May with his master’s degree in educational counseling.
He was an animal lover who had worked as a veterinary technician at a clinic in San Dimas for about three years and was seriously considering becoming a veterinarian before he turned his focus to education. They had a variety of pets at their home, including four dogs, a green-cheeked parakeet, seven chickens, a rooster, two pythons and two chinchillas.
“My little cousins loved to come over because it was a petting zoo,” Loring said, adding that her brother was a vegan who loved to cook. “He was good at making all these vegan foods. I don’t know what they were called. I’m not a vegan, so to me it looked like grass.”
She said her brother worked for the San Bernardino City Unified School District in 2023 and 2024, then took a job at Chaffey College in Ontario as a program assistant for the college’s academic and career counseling center, before returning to San Bernardino City Unified in February with a new job.
San Bernardino City Unified School District spokeswoman Maria Garcia said Loring worked at San Gorgonio High School during the 2023-24 school year as a community resource worker, where he focused on removing barriers to learning for students and families. He was rehired in February as a parent volunteer worker and was set to begin work at Indian Springs High School as a liaison between the school and families.
“The San Bernardino City Unified School District is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Marcus Loring, who dedicated several years of service to our District,” Garcia said in a written statement. “The loss of any member of our employee family is felt across our entire organization. Mr. Loring will be remembered with respect and gratitude for his contributions to SBCUSD and the difference he made in the lives of the students and families he served.”
Jessica Loring also described her brother as a thrill-seeker who was up for anything — bungee jumping, skydiving, rock climbing and hot air ballooning. And he loved to hike, especially the Etiwanda Falls trail in Rancho Cucamonga and the Claremont Wilderness Loop.
“Those were his two favorite places to go hiking,” she said.
And Marcus Loring loved Christmas.
“Come Christmas time, he loved to decorate the Christmas tree, decorate the house, bake cookies and pies,” his sister said.
‘I’m just disgusted’
Now that her brother is gone, Loring and her family are trying to navigate their shock and grief with as much grace as possible.
“Our faith in God has gotten us through. The next part of our life is healing and remembering all the things he brought to the family,” Loring said of her brother.
As for Ayala, she said she struggles not to get upset over what he did and how he was allowed to continue committing crimes until it finally cost someone his life.
“The system failed,” Loring said. “I’m a second-chance kind of person, but this guy’s been in trouble so many times. I’m just disgusted. I’m trying to live in peace, and if I think about the pain another person caused me and my family, I don’t think I’ll be able to heal.”
On Thursday, Loring said she and her mother went to the Preciado Funeral Home in San Bernardino to arrange Marcus’ memorial service. She said he will be buried at Montecito Memorial Park in Colton.
On their way home, they passed the intersection of Highland and Pepper avenues, where the collision that killed her brother occurred.
“I just had a panic attack and started shaking and crying,” Loring said. “I just lost it. I can’t even drive down Highland Avenue anymore.”