We told you last week about Angel Herrera Leal facing a murder charge in Fullerton's North Justice Center a December 2008 crash on the 5 freeway near
Disney Way in Anaheim that occurred after the Los Angeles 30-year-old drove several miles the wrong
way.
Leal was found guilty by a jury today of one felony count of murder. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in state prison at his
Nov. 5 sentencing in the same courtroom.
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Several drivers on the 5 had to avoid Leal's pick-up
as he was driving northbound in the southband lanes, with some having called 9-1-1 to report the wrong-way driver. He eventually crashed head-on into an
oncoming Toyota Corolla driven by 29-year-old Jisun Park.
Both vehicles spun and came to a stop on the freeway.
Park suffered abdominal injuries and had to be rushed to UCI Medical Center for treatment, but her passenger Rebecca Moon, 29, died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Leal had two prior convictions for driving under the influence in 2005
and 2007 and was driving on a suspended license at the time of the
crash. He had completed alcohol education courses in Los
Angeles County, was informed of the danger of driving under the
influence of alcohol and was advised that he could be charged with
murder if he killed someone while driving under the influence.
He blew .29 percent after the
4:45 a.m. wreck that killed Moon.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.