Edhat StaffBy edhat staff
A Lompoc man has been charged with DUI and manslaughter stemming from a head-on vehicle collision that killed one person on August 22, 2020.
Issac Valentino De Luna, 20 of Lompoc, was driving a 2017 BMW south on Harris Grade Road near Burton Mesa Road around 6:30 a.m. De Luna crossed into the northbound lane and struck a 1995 Ford pickup truck head-on. The driver of the truck, 68-year-old Benjamin Romayor of Lompoc, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the California Highway Patrol (CHP).
DeLuna sustained minor injuries, including a laceration to his right hand, and was later arrested for suspicion of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
On Thursday, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce E. Dudley formally charged De Luna with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving while under the influence of alcohol causing injury to another, and driving while having 0.08 percent or more of alcohol causing injury to another. In addition, it is also alleged that De Luna personally inflicted great bodily injury and that he was driving while having a blood alcohol content over 0.15 percent.
De Luna is out of custody on bail of $100,000, and will appear in Department 1 of the Lompoc Superior Court for arraignment on the above charges at 1:30 p.m., October 22, 2020.
