Saturday, January 24, 2015

MURDER TRIAL CONTINUED FOR WRONG WAY HIGHWAY 14 CRASH IN SANTA CLARITA CALIFORNIA



MURDER TRIAL CONTINUED FOR WRONG WAY HIGHWAY 14 CRASH IN SANTA CLARITA CALIFORNIA



January 23, 2015

The murder trial for a man accused of driving the wrong way on Highway 14 and killing two people is due back in court next month, officials said.

A pretrial hearing for Bradford Pate, 39, of Burbank, is set to resume Feb. 26, when lawyers are expected to discuss the case and its schedule.

Pate was arrested in July 2013, after he allegedly drove a 2006 Toyota Tundra south in northbound lanes, near Escondido Canyon Road, at 3:28 a.m. and collided with a 2006 Chrysler 300. The Chrysler swerved and struck a rideshare van.

The Rev. Manard Giles, a 77-year-old Quartz Hill minister, who drove the 2006 Chrysler 300, died on scene in Saturday’s collision.

Mattie Lee Ferguson, a 60-year-old Lancaster woman who was a passenger in Giles’s car, succumbed to her injuries days later at Providence Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills.
Pate initially was arrested for DUI causing injury. He also sustained major injuries after his truck flipped and was sent to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia.

Lennard A. Wilds, 47, of Lancaster, another passenger in Giles’s vehicle, was trapped in the car until rescuers could later free him. He sustained critical injuries, and was airlifted to Henry Mayo.

Juan M. Zamora, 43, of Lancaster, drove the rideshare van, a 2013 Ford Econoline Minor. Zamora was transporting nine passengers to an aerospace work site in Palmdale, likely Plant 42.

Two passengers in the van sustained minor injuries. Efren Arrieta, 27, of Lancaster, and Patrick W. Glesby, 42, of Quartz Hill, was wounded with a cut to left arm.
The other passengers: David G. Moreno, 47, Palmdale; Jose Nario, 22, Palmdale; Javier Cobio, 41, Palmdale; Javier Arrieta, 25, Lancaster; and Alfonso Ramirez, 40, Palmdale were not injured.

Traffic on Saturday was tied up until 7:30 a.m.

The crash occurred less than a week after another wrong-way driver, believed to be on drugs, caused a multi-car pileup that left three people with life-threatening injuries.