Family Mourns Death Of Woman Killed After Suspected Drunk Driver Crashes Into Pomona Home
POMONA (CBSLA) — A Pomona family was grieving Friday after a suspected drunk driver slammed into their home Thursday night, killing beloved mother, grandmother and sister Yolanda Bozonier.
"She always shared with us that when it was her time, it was her time," Diane Guerena, one of Bozonier's three sisters said. "But this wasn't a good time the way it happened."
The 59-year-old was inside a bedroom at the front of her home along Hamilton Boulevard and Colony Drive in Pomona when police say a suspected drunk driver slammed into the home, trapping her for at least 20 minutes. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Normally, family members said the grandmother of three would be sleeping with her grandchildren in the room, but it was just her in the room at the time.
"She just brought that sunshine to all of us," Guerena said. "She was a beautiful person, inside and out."
Relatives said this was the third time the home has been hit and are calling on officials to install speed bumps or a stop sign at the intersection so neither they nor their neighbors have to deal with this type of heartbreak again.
On Friday evening, balloons, flowers and messages of love were placed outside the home Bozonier called home for more than 20 years — a boarded up window just yards away.
Police arrested 33-year-old Carmelino Martinez-Ordonez on suspicion of felony DUI and vehicular manslaughter. Police said he had been drinking immediately before getting behind the wheel.
"Please do not drink and drive," Sylvia Almaguer-Miller, another of Bozonier's sisters, said. "So many lives have been changed for one irresponsible moment."
Martinez-Ordonez was being held on $100,000 bail.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for funeral expenses.