A Garden Grove driver with multiple DUI convictions accepted a plea deal on Tuesday as she was about to go on trial for killing a mother-to-be in an Anaheim crash.
Courtney Fritz Pandolfi, 43, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, as well as DUI related charges and driving with a suspended license, for the Aug. 11, 2020 crash that killed 23-year-old Yesenia Lisette Aguilar while she was out for a walk with her husband. Doctors took emergency measures to save the life of the couple’s baby.
The husband, James Alvarez, told Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert Knox that he was glad Pandolfi was “finally taking responsibility for her actions” and that the criminal court case is nearing a finish. Pandolfi, who faces up to 15 years to life in prison, cried as the husband spoke.
“It has been a long three years,” Alvarez said. “It has been an emotional rollercoaster for me. At least now I am able to move forward and heal from this.”
Pandolfi apparently lost control of her Jeep and jumped a curb on Katella Avenue near Bayless Street, prosecutors say, then crashed through a metal newspaper stand before hitting Aguilar, who was 8 months pregnant.
Alvarez, who was walking with his wife but not injured in the crash, performed CPR on Aguilar. Doctors were able to deliver the baby by Cesarean section but could not save the life of her mother.
The girl — now 3-year-old Adalyn — ran energetically between family members in the hallway outside the Santa Ana courtroom on Tuesday morning and embraced her father as he recounted the emotional impact of his wife’s death. Alvarez has become a parenting inspiration with tens of thousands of online followers since his wife’s death and his daughter’s birth.
Defense attorney Frederick Fascenelli said after the hearing that Pandolfi didn’t want to put Aguilar’s family through a trial.
“She realized that she made a mistake as far as her conduct and she took responsibility for it,” Fascenelli said.
The defense attorney added that he appreciated the comments made in court by Aguilar’s husband.
“That shows a tremendous amount of compassion on his part,” Fascenelli said.
Pandolfi was previously convicted of DUI in 2008, 2015 and 2016. She was given a warning — known as a Watson advisement — that if she continued to drive under the influence and killed someone she could be charged with murder. That warning allowed prosecutors to charge her with second-degree murder rather than a lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter.
According to prosecutors, Pandolfi when she struck Aguilar was “under the influence of a drug cocktail, including cocaine and methamphetamine.”
As part of her plea deal, Pandolfi also admitted to a fourth DUI from November 2019, as well as to possessing and using illegal substances in jail while awaiting trial. During the 2019 DUI, prosecutors say Pandolfi was “high on a combination of drugs including methamphetamine and morphine.”
DA Todd Spitzer said the fatal crash was “not an accident,” but instead the result of “a woman who made a habit of driving while high…
“She knew it was wrong, but she decided that being high was more important than the life of a young woman who was just weeks away from becoming a mother for the first time,” Spitzer said in a statement. “Yesenia’s memory will live on through her beautiful little girl, but that little girl is growing up without ever being able to hug her mother or hear her voice because a stranger decided to make the selfish decision to get behind the wheel while high on drugs.”
Pandolfi is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on April 12.
