Teen Driver Who Live Streamed Sister's Death Speaks Out
MERCED COUNTY (CBS3) - A month after a sad, strange accident killed her 14-year-old sister, Obdulia Sanchez has reached out to our Fresno sister station KGPE to tell her version of events.
Sanchez was driving her 14-year-old sister Jacqueline and her girlfriend back to Stockton from Fresno. Seventy-five miles into the trip, Sanchez lost control of the car while singing, dancing and live streaming the trip on Instagram.
According to the CHP, she was legally impaired when she lost control of the car and veered into a field. The 18-year-old was not hurt, but her sister and the friend, riding in the backseat, were ejected through a rear window. Neither was wearing a seatbelt.
Explaining one of the more disturbing parts of the story, why she continued to live stream, even pointing the phone at her dead sister's body, she wrote:
"Because I knew I had more than 5000 followers, I knew it was the only way my sister would get a decent burial. I would never expose my sister like that. I anticipated the public would donate money because my family isn't rich."
Self-serving as that may sound, the young woman's court appointed attorney says the family has raised $12,000 since the deadly crash.
In a phone interview from the Merced County jail, she made another shocking claim. This was not her first case of D-U-S. Driving while streaming.
"We do it all the time. All the time, trust me. It's like reflex, and I never had an accident," she said.
Until last July 21st.
The 18-year-old who has entered not guilty pleas to 6six counts of felony vehicular manslaughter and DUI wrote that she hopes to have a statue planted in her sister's memory in a Stockton park and promises to work to educate other young people about the dangers of accessing social media while driving.
Those plans may be deferred. Conviction on all counts could have put the troubled teen in prison until she's past 30.