SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) — A 22-year-old woman accused of driving drunk and causing head-on crash that killed her passenger changed her plea on Tuesday.
Tania Molinar teared up as she pleaded guilty.
The victim's family, as well as the driver who survived the crash, sid it's the first time they've seen her show remorse.
"That was totally, completely fake to me," said Gloria Graves.
Graves says the past nine months without her older brother have been a living hell.
"We can't talk to him, we can't see him, we can't hug him, we can't do any of that. It's gone," said Graves. "All we have are memories and that's it."
29-year-old David Sarabia-Lopez - who went by the name William - was the passenger in a car driven by his girlfriend, 22-year-old Tania Molinar, in May of last year when she drifted into oncoming traffic and collided with another vehicle on Avocado Road in El Cajon.
Investigators say Molinar's blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit.
Sarabia-Lopez died on the scene.
The other driver - 25-year-old James Dodson - survived but says his life will never be the same.
"I don't have my spleen," said Dodson. "I don't have a foot of my intestines anymore. I have scars on my front side and back side as if I got shot by a shotgun."
Both Dodson and Sarabia-Lopez's family say Molinar's guilty plea does little in their eyes.
Outside the courtroom, the tension surrounding the case was evident as the two got into a verbal argument with Molinar's family.
Deputies quickly broke it up.
"They're something else," said Graves. "That's just ridiculous. They have no respect. They're so nonchalant about what happened to my brother."
Both families say they're doing their best to move on.
Dodson said he is focused on his recovery in hopes of one day getting back to riding dirt bikes and climbing.
"Yeah I'm alive, but I can't really do the things that I feel I was put on the earth to do right now," he said.
Sarabia-Lopez's family say they want nothing more than to keep his memory alive, especially for the sake of his three kids.
"He was so nice," said Graves. "He would give you his shirt off his back."
Molinar faces more than 11 years behind bars, though the judge will consider giving her seven. She'll be sentenced in June.