Big rig driver thought he had a deal. Instead, judge orders trial in 19-year-old’s death
.jpeg "Olivia Mendoza, 19, was killed in a car accident in 2019")
Andre Hill Jr., a Baltimore truck driver who was expecting to be sentenced Thursday for the 2019 crash that killed 19-year-old Olivia Mendoza, will have to face a jury trial after all.
Fresno County Judge Jonathan Skiles sided with Deputy District Attorney Ki Kim and the more than a dozen Mendoza supporters present to take back a proposed sentence of probation plus jail time.
Hill had pleaded no contest in August to a felony charge of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and was going to be sentenced Thursday, until Kim, who took over the case recently, strongly objected to the possibility of probation. He said the family wanted justice for Mendoza and they believed prison was appropriate.
Kim suggested at least four years in prison for the 33-year-old Hill.
Hill’s attorney Arthur Hampar argued that his client had no previous criminal convictions and deserved probation, despite the death of Mendoza.
“He ran through a stop sign at 25 miles per hour and prior to that he was going the speed limit at 43 miles per hour,” Hampar said. “I don’t see circumstances in aggravation. There was no alcohol and no drugs involved. As difficult as this was, our request is to maintain the indicated sentence and proceed with sentencing.”
Mendoza was killed on Sept. 27, 2019, shortly after 7 p.m. when Hill’s big rig, carrying 80,000 pounds of produce, failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection of Mountain View and Clovis avenues, just west of Selma.
The California Highway Patrol said Hill was northbound on Clovis Avenue and did not stop at a stop sign before slamming into Mendoza’s Honda Civic as she drove westbound on Mountain View.
Hill’s driving record
Kim said this wasn’t just a simple case of a big rig driver missing a stop sign. He said this was just another example of Hill’s flagrant disregard for the law and the regulations for big rig drivers.
Kim alleges Hill committed 38 violations of state and federal law regulating how many hours a driver can be on the road before taking a break. He also is alleged to have falsified his driver’s log, and received tickets for speeding and unsafe lane changes.
Kim said the CHP calculated that in a four-and-a-half day period, Hill only had about 16 hours of sleep.
“It was the opinion of the CHP that the amount of sleep the defendant had correlated to having a blood alcohol concentration of .10 percent (the legal limit is .08),” Kim said.
The prosecutor also reminded Skiles that after Hill’s preliminary hearing in October, he was allowed to be out on bond until his next court hearing but was banned from driving.
Hill did not abide by the conditions. On Nov. 22, 2019 he was caught driving a big rig with a flat tire by law enforcement in Maryland. Several weeks before, Hill was arrested related to a paternity/child support case in Baltimore.
Skiles agreed to pull back the sentencing Thursday and ordered that the trial process move forward.
Mendoza’s relatives were grateful for the judge’s decision.
“We want him to be held accountable. He destroyed our family, he broke us and we are never going to be whole again,” said Mary Mendoza, the victim’s grandmother.
Jaime Mendoza, Olivia’s father, said a driver like Hill should not be out on the roads.
“If you are constantly breaking the law and you aren’t being punished, who else is going to suffer from those actions?” Jaime Mendoza said.
Olivia Mendoza’s death was felt by many in the west Fresno County community of Caruthers where she went to high school. She played soccer and softball for the Blue Raiders before graduating in 2018.
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 4:42 PM.
