DUI driver sentenced in deadly Interstate 805 crash

A man who drove under the influence and crashed into a vehicle stopped on the side of Interstate 805 in Mountain View, killing that vehicle’s driver, was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in state prison.

Markus Eugene Turner, 27, pleaded guilty in San Diego Superior Court to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and other charges for the May 3 crash that killed 65-year-old Temecula resident Grasiela Gomez.

Prosecutors say Gomez’s car was having mechanical issues that morning, forcing her to pull over onto the shoulder.

Turner, who had smoked marijuana and had a blood-alcohol content of around 0.16% — twice the legal driving limit in California — was speeding up to 100 mph and weaving between vehicles just before crashing into Gomez’s vehicle, Deputy District Attorney Melanie Guillen said.

Gomez died at the scene of the wreck. The California Highway Patrol said Turner’s car then struck two other vehicles, causing a chain reaction crash that injured several people.

Turner’s defense attorney, Sammer Zakhour, asked for a sentence of five years due in part to his client’s remorse and early pleas in the case to all charges filed against him.

The attorney said the case was “absolutely a tragedy” and that Turner “owned the mistake that he made” and is “as sorry as can be for what happened.”

Turner also apologized to Gomez’s family during the sentencing hearing.

“I know she was loved beyond measure,” he told Gomez’s family members in attendance. “I am truly sorry that her life was caught short and for the pain that my actions have caused your family.”