A 28-year-old San Francisco man is in custody without bail after San Mateo County prosecutors tied him to a weekend Daly City crash that killed two people, Bay City News and NBC Bay Area reported Thursday.
Alvaro Caballero Arteaga made his first court appearance Wednesday on charges stemming from a collision Sunday at San Jose Avenue and Flournoy Street. Prosecutors say he sped through a red light and broadsided another vehicle, killing driver Rhiannon Lawler and passenger Agustin Garcia. Hoodline, citing local television reporting and the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office, identified Lawler as 46 and from San Francisco and Garcia as 50 and from Daly City, and said Lawler had been proceeding on a green light when the other car slammed into hers. Lawler was pronounced dead at the scene; Garcia died on the way to a hospital, according to that account.
Prior DUI case and a suspended license
A preliminary alcohol screening showed Caballero Arteaga's blood-alcohol level at 0.15% — nearly twice California's 0.08% legal limit for drivers — the district attorney's office told Bay City News. Investigators also found his driver's license had been suspended after a February misdemeanor drunk-driving arrest in Alameda County, meaning he was allegedly behind the wheel while already banned from driving, NBC and SFGate reported.
Hoodline reported that the 0.15% reading was taken about three hours after the collision. The Bay City News wire did not specify the exact clock time of the crash or release a case number.
What happens next in court
Caballero Arteaga did not enter a plea at Wednesday's appearance and was assigned a lawyer through San Mateo County's Private Defender Program, prosecutors said. He remains held on "no bail" status and is due back Oct. 15 for further arraignment. Hoodline described the case as including murder charges; the Bay City News accounts published by NBC and SFGate said he faces charges in the fatal crash without listing the counts in those write-ups.
The case lands amid heightened attention to alcohol-related wrecks on Peninsula roads. For now, the public record from the district attorney's office centers on the red-light allegation, the elevated blood-alcohol reading, the suspended license and the deaths of Lawler and Garcia.