Two drivers plead guilty to vehicular manslaughter

Source: Union Tribune
Author: Onell R. Soto
Date: 2002/01/12

San Diego, CA - Two drivers plead guilty to vehicular manslaughter

VISTA -- Two men from San Clemente pleaded guilty yesterday to vehicular manslaughter charges stemming from a crash south of San Clemente last fall in which a passenger was killed.

George Cattanach, 36, admitted he was intoxicated when he was speeding on El Camino Real just east of Cristianitos Road about 1 a.m. Oct. 14.

California Highway Patrol officers who investigated the crash said Cattanach was racing another car.

In exchange for the guilty plea, a Superior Court judge said Cattanach would be sentenced to no more than six years in prison at a hearing scheduled for March 21, a prosecutor said.

Richard Kentner, 37, of Dana Point, a passenger in Cattanach's Dodge Neon, suffered fatal head injuries when the car struck a parked pickup.

Kentner was chief of operations for an Internet firm in Dana Point.

Jason Williams, 21, who was driving a Mitsubishi Eclipse next to Cattanach, pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter without intoxication. He will be sentenced to probation as part of the plea agreement reached yesterday, a prosecutor said.

Both men faced prison sentences of up to 10 years had they gone to trial and been convicted.

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