San Jose Man Charged With Murder In Pedestrian's Death
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- A San Jose man arrested on Saturday for drunken driving after backing his car up and fatally striking a male pedestrian has been charged with murder and child endangerment, San Jose police said Friday.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office has filed murder charges against Rickey Lartigue, 55, in the death of Willy Umali, 43, of San Jose, police Sgt. Heather Randol said.
Lartigue was initially arrested on suspicion of DUI but Supervising Deputy District Attorney Brian Welch later decided to file murder and two counts of child endangerment charges against him, Randol said.
At 5:47 p.m. Saturday, police were summoned to Leward Avenue at Barlow Avenue just west of East Capitol Expressway in East San Jose and found Umali suffering from life-threatening injuries, Randol said.
He was pronounced dead at 11:58 a.m. Sunday at Regional Medical Center of San Jose, Randol said.
An investigation revealed that Lartigue had been driving north on Leward with two young children inside when he stopped the car, drove in reverse and ran over Umali, who had been walking behind Lartigue's car, Randol said.
The homicide was the 32nd of the year in San Jose, Randol said.
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