RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - An unlicensed driver who was high on meth when he crashed a stolen pickup, killing his passenger, has been convicted of murder in Southern California, according to a newspaper report.
A jury last week also found Arthur Armando Alvarez, 28, guilty of additional charges including felony evading and hit and run causing injury or death, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Saturday. Alvarez is scheduled to be sentenced on March 20.
Jon Karl Smith died when the pickup collided with another vehicle and caught fire in 2018 in Riverside. Three people in the other vehicle were injured.
Prosecutors argued that a murder charge was appropriate because Alvarez knew the potential consequences of dangerous driving.
The newspaper reported that one witness said he heard Alvarez say, “I killed him,” “I ran through the red light,” and that he “couldn’t go back to jail.”
In 2009, he pleaded guilty to felony evading and grand theft auto after leading San Bernardino police on a pursuit that ended with the car he was driving fishtailing violently and going airborne before smashing into a center divider.
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