Deadly Highway Crash
RIVERSIDE (CNS) – A motorist who killed a 41-year-old woman on the Corona (71) Expressway and then fled to Mexico, where he was apprehended, pleaded guilty Monday to gross vehicular manslaughter and other offenses and was immediately sentenced to 13 years in state prison.
Robert Chico Griffin, 49, of Chino admitted the manslaughter count, along with a misdemeanor charge of driving without a license and a sentence- enhancing allegation of perpetrating a hit-and-run under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his admissions, prosecutors dropped three related charges.
During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Monday, Superior Court Judge Joshlyn Pulliam certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense. The judge additionally directed the Department of Probation to determine the appropriate monetary restitution to be paid by the defendant to the victim’s family.
Griffin killed Danelle Aguirre of Moreno Valley on Aug. 15, 2022.
According to the California Highway Patrol, at 2:25 that morning, the defendant was going northbound on the 71, just north of the Riverside (91) Freeway in Corona, in a Lexus SC430 when he approached a Dodge Ram pickup just ahead of him.
Officer Javier Navarro said Griffin plowed into the rear of the truck at an unknown speed, causing the driver — whose identity was not released — to lose control and veer off of the highway, where the Dodge overturned.
The pickup’s passenger, Aguirre, was fatally injured. The driver suffered unspecified minor injuries, from which he has since recovered.
Navarro said Griffin raced away from the crash and fled south of the border, where a joint investigation by the U.S. Marshals and Mexican State Police uncovered his whereabouts, culminating in his apprehension within a couple of weeks.
Specific details regarding how the CHP identified the defendant as the hit-and-run driver were not provided.
Griffin had no documented prior felony convictions. However, court documents showed that at the time of his arrest, he had an unresolved case for being an unlicensed driver of a vehicle in 2021.
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