x
Breaking News
More () »

Closing Arguments: Accused drunk driver drove with body stuck in car

Jury deliberations will soon begin in the trial of a woman accused of hitting and killing a man in North County and then driving more than a mile with his body lodged in her windshield.

SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) — Jury deliberations will soon begin in the trial of a woman accused of hitting and killing a man in North County and then driving more than a mile with his body lodged in her windshield.

Prosecutors say Esteysi "Stacy" Sanchez was drunk when she hit the man in Oceanside back in June of 2016.

On Thursday, attorneys on both sides of the case delivered closing arguments and went into great detail explaining the charges.

Jurors now have to make their decision for a verdict in the deadly hit-and-run that happened nearly two years ago.

“Nobody, not a single charge, not a single instruction, not a single argument from me, is that she meant to kill Mr. Tanhulzen," said Deputy District Attorney Robert Bruce.

Bruce said this is a case about "implied malice.”

Defense attorney Herb Weston says there isn't sufficient evidence to convict his client Stacy Sanchez of second degree murder.

“They don’t want you to know about the level of proof, they want you to be fired up [and] angry and say 'Wow, that person over there doesn’t care about anybody,'" said Weston.

The deadly hit-and-run happened in June of 2016; Sanchez is accused of driving drunk in Oceanside on Mission Avenue and plowing her car into 69-year-old Jack Ray Tenhulzen, a transient, who was on the sidewalk.

Then she allegedly drove more than one mile with his dead body lodged though her windshield and on her passenger seat.

The prosecutor told the jury that the impact of the crash was so strong that it knocked Tanhulzen out of his shoes, severed his foot and killed him instantly

Sanchez had to listen to attorneys through a translator. She’s been in jail ever since the fatal run-in facing a host of felony charges.

Her attorney kept arguing the need for real proof of her intentions that deadly night.

Prosecution closed with asking the jury to vote guilty for second degree murder.

"That’s conscious disregard for human life and in California that is murder," said Bruce.

The defense asked for otherwise:

“It is a crime," said Weston. "It is manslaughter, but it is not murder.”

RELATED COVERAGE

Before You Leave, Check This Out