From OC Register
SANTA ANA – A high-speed crash that claimed the life of an 18-year-old Golden West College student resulted from a street car race between her brother and another driver, a jury decided Thursday.
Westminster Police Department traffic investigators and Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Coroner work at the scene of a fatal traffic collision on Hoover Street south of Hazard Avenue in Westminster in 2012. (FILE: RICHARD KOEHLER, OC REGISTER)
The Orange County Superior Court jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding Jorel Dayoan and Joshua Lautherboren guilty in connection with the death of Jessica Dayoan in a collision on the afternoon of April 5, 2012.
Jorel and Jessica Dayoan, who shared a love of fast cars, were speeding in an MR-2 when Jorel apparently lost control of the vehicle and struck a curb on his right before careening the other direction, across the median and into oncoming traffic, where he crashed into another vehicle.
Jessica was killed in the collision, which caved in the passenger’s side of the MR-2, and the other driver suffered serious injuries.
Prior to the crash, Jorel Dayoan and the driver of a pickup, Lautherboren, had been driving next to each other at speeds of more than 70 mph along a quarter-mile stretch of roadway. A witness who was waiting for a light to change while the two cars sped through an intersection testified that he thought the two were racing, noting that he heard an engine rev.
“They didn’t intend to kill anyone. They didn’t set out that day to race anyone. They made bad decisions while they were driving,” Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker told the jury during her closing statements.
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