DUI driver who killed passenger in head-on crash in Lemon Grove sentenced

A man who drove drunk and the wrong way down a Lemon Grove street, crashing head-on into another vehicle and killing one of its passengers, was sentenced Friday to eight years in state prison.

James Mendias, 29, pleaded guilty in El Cajon Superior Court to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and other charges for the June 29 crash that killed 36-year-old Tonia Silva.

Silva was the front-seat passenger of a Ford Explorer that Mendias crashed into around 8 p.m. on Broadway, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Silva’s 15-year-old son was also a passenger in the vehicle, and her fiance was the driver, Deputy District Attorney Yasmin Bigdeli said Friday during Mendias’ sentencing hearing.

Video evidence and a witness account from an off-duty law enforcement officer showed that Mendias’ pickup truck was traveling west in the eastbound traffic lanes, the Sheriff’s Office said last summer.

The prosecutor said Mendias was driving 70 mph at the time of the crash and that when Silva’s fiance tried to swerve out of the way, Mendias’ truck “mirrored” the maneuver and turned into the victims’ vehicle.

Mendias’ blood-alcohol level was later measured at 0.16%, which is twice the legal driving limit in California, according to Bigdeli.

Sheriff’s officials said that after the crash, open alcohol containers and a canister of nitrous oxide were located in and around Mendias’ pickup truck.

Mendias’ defense attorney, Charles Gill...