Monder Law Group - News
San Diego DUI Suspect that Injured 6 year old Boy Pleads Not Guilty after 15 Deportations
The defendant Banda-Acosta pleaded not guilty to three serious felony charges of DUI which caries a total of 7 years in prison. The charges include driving under the influence resulting in serious bodily injury and felony hit and run resulting in serious bodily injury. These types of cases are the most serious type of DUI cases and are treated similarly to vehicular homicide cases in DUI fatality cases.
The Chula Vista Courthouse is one of the hardest on felony DUI cases throughout the county. The District Attorney will treat this case as a sentence to court and let the judge make the final decision about the outcome of the case. South Bay Court Judge Garry G. Haehnle is notorious for handing out LID offers and Split Sentences on serious Felony DUI cases. However, Banda-Acosta is not eligible for a split sentence simply because he is not a United States Citizen. Split sentence eligibility are only available under certain type of offenses if the defendant is a United States Citizen and does not have any known prior criminal record. Here, Banda-Acosta is not a United States Citizen and it is likely he has a lengthy criminal history in the United States. Often people on split sentences will receive an early release on supervised release but they must remain in San Diego and check in periodically with probation or parole. For example, if it is a 4 year commit on a 2-2 split then the defendant may end up getting released before serving an actual two years in custody and will be on supervision for the remaining time of the 4 year commit. The reason for this is that every defendant is awarded 4019 credits so each day they are in custody is another day they do not have to serve. This was enacted because of the overcrowding issues in our prison population.
The most common offer for this type of offense will be a 7-year LID sentence to court. This means the sentencing judge has all the discretion and can sentence the defendant anywhere from the maximum 7 years or just give him time-served sentence and let him get deported again. The biggest part of the sentencing will be the victim impact statements the judge will hear on the day of sentencing in weighing his decision for the amount of time for Banda-Acosta to serve.
There is no doubt that the defendant Banda-Acosta will be doing a prison commit. The amount of time he will be doing before being deported once again is going to be the big questions. The fact that he has already been deported 15 times for other crimes will be a significant aggregative factor the Judge will take into consideration for purposes of sentencing.
It is inevitable that Banda-Acosta will be deported. From a criminal defense standpoint would be the sooner he gets to ICE the quicker he gets out of this country. Potentially the fastest way for Banda-Acosta to get deported would be to post the $230,000 bail that was set and let Immigration pick him up from the detention facility and begin to process him for deportation proceedings. However, Banda-Acosta may end up losing the bail posted or immigration may just hold him until the outcome of the criminal case. The superior court here in San Diego has no authority or authorization to make immigration orders. The federal government alone has supremacy over immigration cases and the state cannot take action against those facing federal immigration matters. It is unlikely any state court judge could hold any material witness facing deportation proceedings in the pending case.
If you have questions about the criminal procedure process or the immigration implications on criminal cases, feel free to contact San Diego criminal defense attorney Vik Monder at 619-405-0063 or visit San Diego Criminal Attorney
