23 year-old Leonardo Morales from Santa Ana, was recently sentenced to seven years in prison for a drunk driving incident that left his car engulfed in flames and his two children with bodily injuries. Morales pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol and causing injury, driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit, and two counts of child abuse and endangerment. He also pleaded guilty to driving with a suspended license.
On April 13th, 2015 at 3:00 AM, Morales hit a tree on the off-ramp of the Costa Mesa Freeway. At the time of the accident Morales, was driving with girlfriend Kathy De Rosa and two infants.
When the two officers arrived at the scene, they found Montoya lying on the ground, the 2 year-old running around crying and pointing at the car, the 9-month old crying in the back seat, and De Rosa stuck in the passenger seat. The CHP officers quickly took the 9-month old baby and De Rosa out of the car, which at this point had caught on fire. All of the passengers sustained non-life-threatening body injuries and were taken to a local hospital for evaluation.
This isn’t the first time that the pair had been in a run in with the police. Morales and De Rosa were both arrested in 2014 for drunk driving, driving on a suspended license, and resisting arrest. In 2015, De Rosa had already been arrested for drunk driving and child endangerment.
They say that the third time is the charm. Hopefully this pair of individuals learned the consequences of driving while intoxicated. Not only did they both get injured, but they endangered their innocent children. The lesson to be learned here is don’t drink and drive, especially when you have children aboard.
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