A California District Attorney has appeared in court this week, saying a allegedly disabled driver is charged with the murder of a pregnant Disneyland employee now against murder and other charges following previous DUI convictions in 2008, 2015 and 2016.
Courtney Fritz Pandolfi, 40, of Garden Grove, was charged Thursday with murder, driving under the influence of drugs that caused injury, and driving on a suspended license, the Orange County Register reported. The first two counts are criminals, while the third is a crime.
“This is beyond shocking and it has been fully reimbursed,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement following Pandolfi’s recent DUI arrest, following the death of Yesenia Lisette Aguilar, 23, who was fighting in a hospital shortly after was hit on a sidewalk in Anaheim on Tuesday.
“It simply came to our notice then. … This was 100 percent prevalent. ”
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Aguilar’s husband, who was with her, was not injured, the report said. After the victim struck, Pandolfi’s jeep passed through a sidewalk until the car was ‘turned off’, authorities said.
Aguilar was eight months pregnant, according to the Register. Medical personnel managed to rescue her unborn daughter through an emergency C-section, and the DA’s bureau said the baby was in critical condition on Thursday night, the newspaper reported.
Medical staff were hopeful for the baby’s survival after a respiratory tube was removed Thursday and the baby, named Adalyn Rose, breathed on her own, reported Los Angeles-based KABC-TV.
The victim, a Anaheim resident, was an employee at Disneyland, Los Angeles-based KTLA-TV reported.
“We are saddened by the tragic loss of our cast member Yesenia Aguilar and offer our deepest condolences to her family, friends and loved ones,” a Disneyland spokeswoman told the station.
“There is no reason why a 23-year-old mother should die and her daughter would grow up without ever seeing her mother smile or hear her voice,” Spitzer said in a statement. “It simply came to our notice then. This woman [Pandolfi] knew the consequences of driving under the influence and she did it anyway. “
Courtney Fritz Pandolfi, 40, faces murder and other charges in connection with a fatal DUI crash Tuesday in Anaheim, California, authorities say. (Anaheim Police Department)
According to Spitzer, Tuesday’s crash was “not an accident” as much as “a choice – and it was a fatal one.”
After all three previous convictions of DUI, Pandolfi received a warning, known as a ‘Watson advice’, the Register reported. It informs suspects convicted of DUI that they may witness murder charges if someone dies as a result of a subsequent DUI incident.
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Evidence that a convicted DUI driver has received Watson advice in the past allows prosecutors to pursue a charge of second-degree murder, instead of murder in the car, if a DUI-related death occurs, according to the Registry.
Pandolfi appeared in court Thursday but did not file a lawsuit, the newspaper reported. She is expected to return on September 4th.
If convicted, Pandolfi could face life in prison. She was held in jail on $ 3 million bail.
