Store owner pleads guilty to providing alcohol to minor involved in deadly 2019 Long Beach crash

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- A store owner pleaded guilty to providing alcohol to an underage driver who subsequently hit and killed a family of three in Long Beach, and as a result was banned from the alcohol business for life.

A couple and their 3-year-old son were killed in the crash on Halloween night in 2019. Earlier this month, Carlo Navarro was convicted of murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated for the deadly crash.

Navarro is set to be sentenced in September.

Amor Amacio, of Norwalk, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor count of furnishing alcohol to a minor who consumed it and "thereby proximately causes great bodily to injury to themselves or any other person," as well as a count of conspiracy to obstruct state regulations by using her daughter as a front to illegally obtain a liquor license.

A video obtained by prosecutors shows Amacio, now 60, handing a bottle of whiskey to Navarro without asking for identification or paying for the bottle, according to prosecutors. The young man said in a statement that the woman knew he was under 21, had sold him alcohol multiple times in the past and had directed him to return to the store the following day with $25 to pay for the $16 bottle of whiskey, according to the City Prosecutor's Office.

Amacio was banned from ever holding a liquor license or participating in any business or other commercial activity involving the sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages in California, along with being sentenced to 364 days in custody, five years on probation and 720 hours of community service, according to prosecutors.

She was also ordered to submit proof of at least $1 million in civil liability insurance that may be used to pay restitution to the victims' family, along with a $1,000 donation to a local charity selected by the victims' family, according to the City Prosecutor's Office.

Amacio's daughter, Syntyche Amacio, 28, also of Norwalk, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct licensing provisions of the Alcohol Beverage Control Act for being the paper owner'' of the liquor store while allowing her mother to operate it, according to the City Prosecutor's Office.

Prosecutors contended that Syntyche applied for and was issued a license to operate the liquor store in North Long Beach, but that the store was operated by her mother, whom prosecutors said would not have been issued a new liquor license after being convicted in a case involving food stamps.

The younger Amacio was not present when alcohol was provided to Navarro and there was no evidence she had provided alcohol to minors on previous occasions, prosecutors said.

City News Service contributed to this report.