15 TO LIFE FOR DEADLY DUI

A Bakersfield judge has denied a motion to dismiss a second degree murder charge for a high speed DUI crash that killed a 22-year-old woman, despite pleas by the defense that defendant was truly remorseful. 26-year-old Alex Rubio was sentenced today to 15-years-to-life for the death of Princess Almonidovar. His blood alcohol was twice the legal limit when he hit her car on Ming Avenue and New Stine Road around 3am on January 3, 2014. Attorney Tony Lidgett disagreed with the severity of the punishment, saying the crash was an accident and that Rubio was a young man who deserved a chance for parole, especially since the victim also had a high blood alcohol level. But her father, Joseph Almonidovar, felt the sentence was just, saying it would be “preposterous to think that you drink and drive, and hurt somebody and kill somebody, and you call it a mistake. It is murder.”

Suzanne Grant