On Monday, March 2nd, in a Kern County Court, California, a man got convicted of the murder of two people, among other charges. He is 24-year-old Daniel Mejia, the man who killed a mother and her son in a 2017 DUI car crash.

As the court clerk read the jury’s verdict, Mejia betrayed no emotion. He was found guilty of the six charges against him, including two counts of second-degree murder, an offense that carries a penalty of fifteen years to life imprisonment.

The county court judge, Brian M. McNamara, adjourned until April 22nd for sentencing. The prosecutor, Michelle Domino, believes the jury gave the right verdict and hopes that the family of the dead victims can have closure at last.

Christopher Martens, Mejia’s attorney, on the other hand, believes his client was unfairly convicted. The lawyer said the young man should have been found guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated as the evidence did not support a murder charge.

The accident that Mejia stood trial occurred while he was driving above 90 mph in a pickup on November 24th, 2017. According to eyewitnesses, the convicted man swerved and cut across other drivers, slamming into a parked Jeep from behind.

Karla Mendoza, 21, and Axel Rodriguez, 5, were in the Jeep, which rolled and caught fire. The little boy died at the scene, while his mother died the next day in the hospital.

The third passenger, 3-year-old Zoey Mendoza, suffered small injuries but survived. During the investigation, a test by the Kern Regional Crime Lab showed that Mejia had a BAC of .25 percent, which is way above the legal limit of .08 percent.

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