A 25-year-old former military member was sentenced Thursday to 10 years’ imprisonment for the 2021 death of a 37-year-old man and injury to a woman, both her friends from Texas and passengers in the Nissan Rogue she was driving while intoxicated and crashing into a police car on the H-1 freeway.
Klarissa Lopez, also known as Klarissa Velasquez, of Texas, who had been stationed in Hawaii in 2021, pleaded no contest Sept. 19 to first-degree negligent homicide in the death of Ronald Garcia and first-
degree negligent injury to Paula Rosas.
Deputy Prosecutor Hon-Lum Cheung-Cheng said Thursday during sentencing that Lopez was convicted of impaired driving after a crash in Texas just seven months after causing the crash that killed Garcia.
Circuit Judge Shanlyn Park sentenced Lopez to 10 years in prison for the negligent homicide and ordered her to pay $31,487.54 in restitution to Kriscia Garcia Alarcon. The judge also sentenced her to five years for the negligent injury, with credit for time served, which was a total of one day when she was arrested May 11, 2022. Both prison sentences are to run concurrently.
A restitution hearing is set for April 23 for the negligent injury.
Lopez was immediately taken into custody after the sentencing.
“We are pleased the judge recognized the seriousness of the offense and gave Lopez the full 10-year sentence,” Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm said in a written news release. “There is evidence Lopez had been drinking and was looking at her phone when she crashed into a police car that had stopped to help another motorist.”
Lopez had been out on $50,000 bail bond and living in Texas after a judge allowed her to leave the jurisdiction in 2022 to live with her parents in Houston.
Victor Bakke, Lopez’s attorney, told the court five months ago, on Aug. 9, that Lopez was three months pregnant and was concerned about her ability to fly to Hawaii for court proceedings due to her pregnancy.
The state’s sentencing memorandum says Lopez was arrested for driving while intoxicated March 11, 2022, after a vehicle collision in Houston, less than a year after the Honolulu crash. The crash left the other driver with hand and foot lacerations.
She fled the scene, and returned later admitting she had three drinks before driving. She had a blood alcohol level of 0.135 grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath. In Hawaii, driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.08% is illegal.
The memorandum also details the facts of the Hawaii case.
Garcia and Rosas were visiting Lopez, who was stationed in Hawaii. The three had gone to Whiskey Dix Saloon, a Pearl City bar, where Lopez had a beer, a mixed drink and two shots of alcohol in an hour and a half before driving them back to Waikiki, Rosas told police.
Rosas said Lopez was going about 70 mph, faster than the other cars, driving erratically, “bobbing and weaving through traffic,” in the five minutes before the crash in an area where the speed limit is 45 mph.
The car’s black box showed no braking 0.5 second before the crash, and the car was traveling at 63 mph.
Police officer Christopher Chong responded at 11:55 p.m. to a stalled vehicle and parked his blue-and-white police SUV in the far-right lane of the eastbound H-1 freeway near the Queen Emma Street overpass.
His SUV’s roof-mounted strobe light was on and flashing, along with rear arrows directing oncoming traffic to move left.
At about 11:59 p.m., Lopez’s Nissan Rogue crashed into the rear of the police vehicle, the force of which caused the police car to move forward and rotate clockwise.
The Nissan veered to the left, crossing all the eastbound lanes of the freeway, striking the center median and coming to a stop there.
Chong found Garcia unconscious with blood on his shirt and head, and wedged between the front passenger seat and the rear passenger floor. He died of multiple blunt force injuries to head, neck, torso, arms and legs.
Rosas was found pinned down in the front passenger seat, screaming. An officer noted she was in a “very awkward position,” with both legs on the dashboard and her head touching her knees. She had a protruding exposed bone near her hand, and her right hand appeared to be completely severed from her wrist. She suffered right wrist dislocation, open right distal ulnar radial (part of the forearm) fracture, several fractured ribs, a sternum fracture and intestinal injury.
Lopez told police she did not see Chong’s vehicle because she was looking at her phone trying to look at directions, and offered that she was not intoxicated.
Another officer noted she had red, watery and glassy eyes, and he detected a strong odor of alcohol from her breath and person.
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