A 37-year-old Lake Forest man who drove drunk and caused a crash that killed two people on the southbound 5 Freeway in Irvine four years ago was sentenced Friday, Aug. 15 to 19 years to life in prison, authorities said.
Jorge ErastoCruz was on probation for two previous convictions for drunk driving when, around 2 a.m. on Nov. 14, 2021, he drove drunk on the 5 Freeway and slammed into a Honda Civic on the right shoulder, killing a woman in the back seat and another man who had gotten out of the car, California Highway Patrol officials said.
ErastoCruz in June pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and a count of DUI with a blood-alcohol level at 0.08% or higher causing injury, court records show.
The driver of the Civic, Shayala A. Sierra, 23, of San Diego, had pulled over to the right shoulder of the southbound freeway just north of Yale Avenue, the CHP said.
A man got out of the car and was struck by another vehicle, the CHP said. ErastoCruz, driving an SUV, made an evasive maneuver to try to avoid the man, but veered off the roadway and slammed into the rear of the Civic.
As a result of that crash, Alice Read, 25, of San Diego, and the man who got out of the car, Joshua Johnson, 28, of Salt Lake City, Utah, were both killed.
ErastoCruz had pleaded guilty in July 2019 to a pair of misdemeanor DUIs in Orange County that occurred just over two months apart in late 2018.