Same story... repeat offender enivitably murders someone and only THEN we put him away.
SAN DIEGO - A man who was on parole for a DUI conviction when he drove drunk, causing a freeway crash that killed a 75-year-old grandmother and injured a child, pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder.
John Joseph Taskey, 47, will be sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison on Nov. 12.
The car the victim was riding in was one of two vehicles carrying family members to watch the sunset at Sunset Cliffs when the 6:30 p.m. collision happened on Sept. 13, 2007.
Witness John Covey testified at a hearing last December that he was driving west on Interstate 8 when he saw Taskey's truck rear-end the car carrying the victim, causing it to roll over a number of times.
The driver was able to climb out of the wreckage, but three people were dazed in the back seat and one person was trapped in the front passenger seat, Covey testified.
Rosa Degerman, sitting in the back seat, was seriously injured and died the next morning at a hospital.
A 7-year-old female passenger suffered a fractured left shoulder, and a male passenger was treated for a concussion, said Deputy District Attorney David Grapilon.
California Highway Patrol Officer Jesus Magdaleno testified earlier that Taskey was driving on a suspended license, appeared very disoriented and had an odor of alcohol and an injured finger.
The officer said he had Taskey blow into a breathalyzer to check his blood-alcohol level and the defendant registered a .112 percent and then a .118 percent on a second test. The legal limit for operating a motor vehicle is .08 percent.
Speed was the main reason for the crash, Magdaleno testified.
Grapilon said Taskey has five prior DUI convictions dating between 1997 and 2006.
In return for his guilty plea to murder, charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, felony DUI and driving with a .08 percent blood-alcohol level or higher were dropped.
Here's an app that lets you vent your road rage and rate bad driver online.
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