Healdsburg man sentenced for fatal DUI collision that cost boy his leg
HEALDSBURG – A Healdsburg man was sentenced on Wednesday to eight years and four months in prison for driving under the influence in a crash that killed a man and seriously injured a boy who lost his leg, the Sonoma County District Attorney announced.
Ulises Castrejon Valdez, 28, pleaded no contest in March to charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving-impaired causing great bodily injury.
Valdez caused the accident in May of 2021 on High School Road near Gaye Road that resulted in the death of a bicyclist and the loss of a minor child's leg, among other serious injuries, the DA said.
When officers arrived at the scene, they saw Valdez's pickup truck on its wheels facing southwest near a a utility pole with significant damage to its driver's side.
The defendant had struck Mark Graham Osborne on his bike, killing him, and a 12-year-old boy.
Authorities said that as Valdez was being extracted from his car he said, "I'm drunk."
A Breathalyzer test nearly three hours after the collision revealed his blood alcohol percentage to be .18, police said.
The California Highway Patrol later determined that Valdez had been driving 88.2 mph on the curved road before the impact. His speed was nearly twice the posted limit and more than two and a half times the advisory speed for conditions. Witnesses said that he and another driver were engaged in "extremely dangerous" driving leading up to the incident.
The 12-year-old boy had to have his leg amputated and suffered a fractured pelvis and right arm. He also suffered a concussion, back pain, neck pain, right leg pain and cuts and abrasions.
More than a year after the incident, the DA says the boy has been fitted with a prosthetic leg and told authorities that "he still feels like he is in a dream." To this day he will not ride his bicycle farther than a quarter mile from his home, the DA said.