Ex-LAPD officer pleads guilty to murder, DUI in crash that killed three

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- A now-former Los Angeles Police Department officer pleaded guilty Friday to murder and DUI charges stemming from a high-speed crash that killed three people on the 605 Freeway in Santa Fe Springs while he was off-duty.

Edgar Verduzco, now 34, is facing 15 years to life in state prison in connection with the Sept. 26, 2017, crash that killed UC Riverside student Oscar Davila, 19, and his parents, Mario Davila, 60, and Maribel Davila, 52, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Verduzco -- who has remained behind bars since he was arrested in 2018 in connection with the charges -- pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and one count each of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and driving with a 0.08 percent blood alcohol content causing injury.

"As a police officer, Mr. Verduzco was aware that recklessly driving under the influence of alcohol at 150 miles per hour was extremely dangerous to human life and could result in the death of innocent victims, as it tragically did in this case,'' District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement announcing Verduzco's guilty plea.

Verduzco was speeding in his 2016 Chevrolet Camaro in a carpool lane on the freeway when the vehicle smashed into a 2014 Nissan containing the Davilas and then into a 2010 Toyota Scion, authorities said shortly after the crash.

The vehicle containing the Davila family struck a center divider and burst into flames, while the occupants in the other vehicle suffered minor injuries, according to the District Attorney's Office.

At a 2019 hearing in which Verduzco was ordered to stand trial, a California Highway Patrol officer testified that he used data from the defendant's Camaro to determine that the vehicle began braking within one second of the collision with the Nissan and that it was traveling at an estimated 151 mph at the time of the crash.

A driver who was on the freeway that night, Javier Omar Quintanilla, choked back tears at the hearing as he recalled seeing the Camaro at a "speed I've never seen before'' through his rear-view mirror and saying to himself that the driver was going to kill himself or someone else.

Quintanilla said he didn't see or hear the collision, but subsequently came upon the wreck and parked to try to help the crash victims before the Nissan caught fire. He said that he smelled alcohol on Verduzco's breath following the crash.

Berly Alvarado, who was in the Scion with her 1-year-old son, said she panicked and screamed after the collision, which sent her car spinning. She said her son, who was in a car seat, suffered cuts, but she called the injury she suffered to her wrist nothing "compared to what was happening to the other people.''

The woman said that she saw Verduzco approach the Nissan after he managed to get out of his damaged Camaro, but that he had to retreat toward his own car after the Nissan burst into flames.

California Highway Patrol Officer Gersain Chavez described a "pretty chaotic'' crash scene, in which three bodies were found inside the Nissan, which had fully burned. The CHP officer said he smelled the odor of alcohol emitting from Verduzco, who informed him that he was an off-duty LAPD officer and denied having consumed alcohol that evening.

Subsequent blood testing done at a hospital showed Verduzco's blood alcohol content to be 0.13 percent, according to a stipulation by attorneys from both sides. Chavez testified that a preliminary alcohol screening that was completed by Verduzco before he was taken to the hospital registered at 0.12 percent.

It is illegal under state law to drive with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or above.

The CHP officer said Verduzco broke down after being told that three people had died as a result of the collision.

Three of Verduzco's training officers from the LAPD testified that he was with them when DUI arrests were made, and that the police union offers Uber rides twice a year for up to $40 so officers don't drink and drive.

CHP Officer Emmanuel DaSilva, who was assigned to conduct a criminal investigation after the crash, testified that he found an Instagram account that he believed belonged to Verduzco which featured an Instagram "story'' that included an animated man and a car in which the airbag deployed that was superimposed on a bar with the hashtag "dontdrinkanddrive'' that had been posted just under four hours before the deadly collision.

Another Instagram "story'' allowed him to determine the bar in Whittier where the video was filmed, according to DaSilva.

An unidentified female companion who was with Verduzco at the bar used a credit card belonging to the defendant to spend nearly $73 at that bar in three separate transactions in just over three hours, according to the CHP officer.

The crash and the ensuing investigation resulted in the southbound lanes of the freeway in the area being closed for nearly six hours.

According to a GoFundMe page created on the family's behalf, the Davilas were "members of Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine Church, volunteers of the Riverside community, supporters of the arts, and all three of them had positive influences on those around them.''

Verduzco was initially arrested by the California Highway Patrol shortly after the crash and then released two days later while CHP officials awaited the results of lab tests, authorities said. He was arrested again by the CHP in April 2018 in Long Beach, authorities said.

Verduzco was subsequently "separated from service with the department'' on July 21, 2018, according to the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section.

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