Garden Grove DUI crash: 5-year-old declared brain dead after being struck on bike ride with family
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (CNS) - A 29-year-old man accused of a hit-and-run crash that injured a family in Garden Grove was charged Wednesday with gross vehicular manslaughter after one of the victims – a 5-year-old boy – died.
Ceferino Ascencion Ramos was previously charged July 9 with hit-and-run with permanent and serious injury, but now is charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, failing to stop at a hit and run with injury or death and driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol content above the legal limit of .08%.
He faces sentencing enhancements for allegedly fleeing a vehicular manslaughter, causing great bodily injury of coma or paralysis and inflicting great bodily injury.
Ramos is accused of killing 5-year-old Jacob Ramirez, who was rushed to a hospital in critical condition and was later declared brain dead.
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The boy's father, Angel Ramirez, who suffered bleeding in the brain from a fractured skull, remains in a coma, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
The father and his wife, Angela Hernandez-Mejia, were riding e-bikes with their three children just after 7 p.m. in Garden Grove on Haster Street near Twintree Lane when they were struck by the defendant, prosecutors said.
The father was pulling a trailer with Jacob and his 6-year-old sister inside. His wife was pulling a trailer with their 7-month-old daughter in it.
The eldest daughter, who turned 7 in the hospital, has been released, prosecutors said. The mother and baby suffered minor injuries.
The criminal complaint alleges Ramos got in his car in Santa Ana to drive to a liquor store in Anaheim to buy more beer. He is accused of having a blood-alcohol level of .22.