Marco Valencia, the then 20 year old drunk driver who slammed into a group of Santa Clarita Velo cyclists in 2009 -killing one- gets 26 years to life for his crime:
A Canyon Country man who was on probation for two underage drunk driving convictions when he drove into a group of bicyclists, killing one, was sentenced Tuesday to 26 years to life in prison.
Marco Antonio Valencia, now 22, was found guilty in April of the July 2009 death of Joseph Novotny, a 43-year-old bicyclist from Stevenson Ranch.
Valencia, who was 20 at the time, drove his Ford F-150 pickup truck into a pack of four cyclists on Bouquet Canyon Road in the Santa Clarita hills. Novotny was killed and the other three riders were injured.
Valencia fled the crash scene and was arrested 90 minutes later by the California Highway Patrol. Three hours after the crash, his blood alcohol level was at .17 – more than double the legal limit, according to officials, who pegged his BAC at .23 at the time of the crash.
I was always struck by how brazen Valencia was on that Sunday morning, how he smiled and flashed a peace sign at a motorist who had become alarmed by his driving. How he didn’t even stop to check on the cyclists, and how, when he was finally stopped by Deputies, he was only concerned about himself, telling the Deputy, ‘Just shoot me, my life is over.’
Selfish to the end. Now he’ll have the rest of his life behind bars to think about it.
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I do not gloat at his sentence, but I do agree justice has been served to him. There is no justice for his victims, however, only grief and our prayers.
Is there a marker where the accident occurred?
‘Just shoot me, my life is over.’
-and what a pathetic life it must have been that he needed to get black out drunk.
I’m not here to gloat or pray. I’m relieved that an individual, who most certainly would have gone out and done it again, is behind bars.
I didn’t know Joe personally, but I knew every other person involved in the crash. It has changed their lives, that moment.
Petz, I’m not a fan of the markers myself. I would rather see non-specific (as to any individual) signs reminding people to slow down and\or designate a driver etc.