Appeals court upholds conviction for drunk driver who killed Long Beach couple and their three-year-old son on Halloween in 2019

A California appeals court panel on Monday upheld the murder conviction for a man who killed a Long Beach couple and their three-year-old son on Halloween in 2019. 

The split ruling, which saw a majority of the panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal reject the man's claims that there was not enough evidence to support his murder conviction and that jurors in this trial should not have seen the autopsy photos of two of the victims killed in the crash. 

Carlo Adrian Navarro, now 25, is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for the deaths of Raihan Dakhil Awaida, 32, her husband Joseph, 30, and their three-year-old son Omar. 

"The severity of the injuries Raihan and Omar suffered showed how wantonly Navarro was acting when he inflicted those injuries,'' Associate Justice Gregory J. Weingart wrote in the ruling, with Associate Justice Helen I. Bendix concurring in the ruling.

The panel's majority noted in a 2-1 ruling that Navarro drove his SUV about 30 to 40 mph over the speed limit on a residential street on Halloween evening when people were out walking, went through multiple stop signs without stopping and was traveling at such a high speed that he lost control and drove on to the sidewalk, where he struck the Awaida family and then continued to drive until he hit signs and toppled a concrete water fountain before finally stopping.

Read more: Man Killed After Suspected Drunk Driver Careens Onto Long Beach Sidewalk On Halloween Night

In a seven-page dissenting opinion, Presiding Justice Frances Rothschild wrote that she would reverse Navarro's conviction on the murder charges. She wrote that the autopsy photos had "minimal probative value" at most, "but were highly prejudicial."

"... Testimony describing the injuries of a dead child simply does not have the same impact as images of a dead child — some close-up enough that the jury could notice small, intimate details about his face and body," Rothschild wrote in her dissenting opinion. "Nor can we justify this additional impact as necessary to provide additional insight into or support for the causes of death beyond that already established by the testimony."

Navarro was convicted in July 2022 of three counts each of murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated stemming from the crash, in which the family was struck in the area of Country Club Drive and Los Cerritos Park Place.

Joseph Awaida died the night of the collision. The couple's son died Nov. 2, and his mother died the following day.

At his September 2022 sentencing, Navarro apologized in a Long Beach courtroom to the victims' family members.

"I wish I could bring them back, but I can't," he said.

The defendant told the court that facing the victims' relatives was his biggest fear, "knowing that I'll never be able to give you guys back what you lost."

Superior Court Judge Laura Laesecke called the crash an "unspeakable tragedy" and said she knows that Navarro "didn't intend to kill the Awaida family, but his actions caused the loss of two generations."

"Mr. Navarro, this was not just an average night when you were going out with your buddies. This was Halloween," the judge said, adding that the decision that weighs most heavily on her was Navarro's "decision to speed."

The defendant could have faced as much as 45 years to life in prison, but the judge opted against imposing the maximum term.

She noted that Navarro had no prior criminal record and that he "stopped and took responsibility right there" after the deadly crash — which she said some adults don't do.

The judge noted she believed the defendant could be an asset to the community, suggesting he might advocate for a law — potentially named after the 3-year-old victim — requiring ignition interlock devices for young drivers, which would mandate a breath sample before starting a vehicle.

"Try to use this time to do something good," the judge told the defendant.

Grieving family members of the victims also spoke in court during the emotional September 2022 hearing.

"There are no words to describe the loss," Joseph Awaida's mother and Omar's grandmother, Vera, said. "The defendant has given us a life sentence ... The world has lost more than it will ever know."

"You used your car as a weapon and you ran over my family," Joseph Awaida's aunt, Cecilia Ramos, told Navarro.

Raihan Awaida's father, Faisal Dakhil, told the judge, "On Halloween night ... I lost not one, not two, three members of my own family. ... It's a loss that we can't describe," he said, noting that their photos are "plastered all over our house."

Just over a week after Navarro's conviction, a woman whom prosecutors said operated a liquor store that furnished alcohol to Navarro before the crash pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of furnishing alcohol to a minor who consumed the alcohol and "thereby proximately causes great bodily injury to themselves or any other person."

The woman, Amor Potestades Amacio, also pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy to obstruct licensing provisions of the Alcohol Beverage Control Act because she was operating a liquor store, Green Diamond Liquor, without approval from the state department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, according to the Long Beach City Prosecutor's Office.

A video obtained by prosecutors shows Amacio handing a bottle of whiskey to Navarro without asking for identification or taking payment, 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 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, 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.

Like her mother, Syntyche Amacio was also banned from holding a liquor license or participating in any business or other commercial activity involving the sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages in California. She was also ordered to serve one year probation, complete 40 hours of community service and to donate $1,000 to a local charity selected by the Awaida family, according to the City Prosecutor's Office.

"This is one of the most tragic events to ever happen in Long Beach, and it was entirely preventable," City Prosecutor Doug Haubert said in a statement released in July 2022. "There is nothing a misdemeanor case can do to bring justice to the Awaida family, but we hope this will help prevent a similar tragedy in the future."