Esteysi Sanchez apparently didn’t notice the dead homeless man who ended up in the passenger seat
VISTA, California — A dead-drunk motorist who hit and killed a homeless man and then drove for over a mile with his lifeless body hanging halfway through her windshield before stopping, has been convicted of murder.
Esteysi “Stacy” Sanchez, 31, had twice the legal blood alcohol limit when struck and killed Jack Ray Tenhulzen in Oceanside, California in June 2017, prosecutors said, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
They said she hit Tenhulzen’s so hard, he was knocked out of his pants and shoes and flew through the windshield, landing on her passenger seat. He was killed instantly and had one of his legs severed near the foot by the impact.
But Sanchez apparently didn’t immediately notice Tenhulzen’s body sitting right next to her, and she drove more than a mile, parking around the block from her house and then walking home.
Sanchez’s attorney had argued that his client had fallen asleep at the wheel and then panicked when she discovered Tenhulzen’s body in the car next to her.
Prosecutors had sought a second-degree murder charge in the case, because friends of Sanchez’s had warned her that she was too drunk to drive and that she shouldn’t get behind the wheel. They argued that showed she had a conscious disregard for life.
She faces a minimum 15-years-to-life behind bars.
