Retrial scheduled in hit and run case against man deported multiple times

CHULA VISTA (CNS) - A judge Friday denied a defense motion to dismiss felony DUI and hit-and-run charges against an often-deported Mexican citizen accused of driving drunk and causing a crash in San Ysidro that seriously injured a 6-year-old boy.

The ruling by South Bay Judge Stephanie Sontag clears the way for a second trial for 39-year-old Constantino Banda.

Last month, a jury deadlocked 8-4 in favor of convicting Banda of the felony charges. Jurors found the defendant guilty of misdemeanor counts of vandalism, battery and driving without a license.

Banda's attorney maintained during the first trial that Banda wasn't behind the wheel at the time of the collision that injured Lennox Lake. But Deputy District Attorney Christopher Chandler said that Banda was driving when his truck blew through a stop sign at Camino de la Plaza and Dairy Mart Road and T-boned a Honda Accord carrying the 6-year-old and his parents as they returned home from a day at Disneyland.

Chandler said Banda, his brother and a man who worked for the defendant, Jorge Adame Ariza, had been at a Chula Vista seafood restaurant/bar watching a boxing match before the crash, which occurred about 11:20 p.m. on May 6.

Banda's estranged wife and her friend were also at the eatery, and the defendant flattened the tires on the friend's vehicle and another car before leaving, the prosecutor said. The defendant also grabbed the friend of his estranged wife, and a bystander who intervened got into a fistfight with Banda, according to Chandler.

Adame drove away with Banda in the passenger seat, but Adame told police that Banda was behind the wheel when the accident occurred about a half-hour later, Chandler told the jury.

When Border Patrol agents found Banda's truck parked on a street not far from the crash scene, he was in the driver's seat. The defendant failed a number of field sobriety tests and his blood-alcohol content was measured at more than .15 percent, the prosecutor said.

Investigators looked at Banda's body and found seat belt markings that indicated he had been driving the truck at the time of the collision, according to the prosecutor.

But Deputy Public Defender Juliana Humphrey said police made up their mind quickly that Banda was the driver who plowed into the Lake family. Later, evidence was developed that showed Adame was the driver of the truck at the time of the accident, Humphrey told the jury.

Humphrey conceded that Banda popped the tires in the restaurant parking lot so his wife would have to go home with him.

The attorney alleged that Adame -- who was given immunity to testify -- lied and gave inconsistent statements to police.

Humphrey said Adame -- who had only been in the United States for 14 months -- got confused and first headed south before turning around near the border and driving north before getting into the accident with the Lake family.

Federal authorities said Banda has been deported to Mexico or allowed to return to that country voluntarily at least 17 times since 2002.

Banda's retrial is set for Nov. 7.