Gustavo Montoya, the Uber driver accused of helping chase down three sisters over a missing cellphone that led to a deadly crash on Highway 99, has accepted a plea deal and agreed to testify against his co-defendant, Tevin Brandt. Montoya pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence on Tuesday, and prosecutors dismissed the other charges against him as part of the agreement.
Montoya now faces one year in jail and felony probation, according to KGET 17 News, with sentencing scheduled for Dec. 16. Judge Tiffany Organ-Bowles accepted the plea, and Montoya acknowledged that the deal requires him to testify at Brandt's trial. That trial has been sent to Judge Gloria Cannon's courtroom and is expected to last 20 days, with proceedings expected to wrap up before Montoya is sentenced. The outlet reports that the schedule for opening statements was still unclear at the time of publication.
The case traces back to March 4, 2023, when a crash in south Bakersfield killed 21-year-old Karime Duarte and her 15-year-old sister, Jennifer Duarte, and seriously injured a third sister, 23-year-old Diana Ponce, who survived. The station's earlier reporting lays out how the night unfolded: Brandt had been bar-hopping the night before the crash and used a phone-tracking app to try to locate his missing cellphone. Montoya, who had given Brandt a ride through Uber, joined him in searching the area where the app pointed.
A Case of Mistaken Identity
The two men came across a vehicle occupied by the three sisters, who were out delivering newspapers, and allegedly believed the women had Brandt's phone. According to the same KGET account, the men confronted the sisters and then allegedly chased them after they tried to drive away. The sisters headed to the end of McKee Road and onto Highway 99 in an attempt to escape, when their vehicle was struck by a pickup truck and burst into flames, court documents cited by the outlet state.
In a detail that has shadowed the case since charges were first filed, the sisters never actually had Brandt's phone. The device was later found inside a separate rideshare vehicle that had been parked on the same street where Brandt first confronted the women, per the station's earlier report.
Conflicting Accounts of the Charges
Exactly what Brandt is now charged with remains murky in public reporting. Tuesday's account states that he faces charges including two counts of second-degree murder and could face a life prison term if convicted, while an earlier KGET report on the case described Brandt and Montoya as each facing two counts of vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving. The discrepancy between those two accounts has not been resolved in available reporting. Under California law, as outlined by the California Legislative Information database, second-degree murder is punishable by 15 years to life in state prison, subject to specified exceptions, while the state's manslaughter statute defines manslaughter as the unlawful killing of a human being without malice and recognizes three distinct categories of the offense.
Brandt's case has already seen delays. An earlier report from BakersfieldNow indicated Brandt and Montoya were at one point set for trial on Aug. 31, a date that clearly did not hold given Montoya's plea this week.
A Separate Plea in a Different Fatal Crash
Montoya's plea deal echoes another recent Kern County case tied to a fatal crash. Viridiana Rojas, involved in the McKee Road crash that killed two people, pleaded no contest to a wet reckless charge and was sentenced to a year of probation after misdemeanor DUI charges against her were dismissed, the station reported. Rojas's probation terms included attending an alcohol education program, enrolling in DUI school, and agreeing not to drive with any measurable amount of alcohol or drugs in her system, along with submitting to chemical testing upon request.
For now, the focus in the Duarte sisters' case shifts to Brandt's upcoming trial, where Montoya is expected to take the stand as a cooperating witness under the terms of his plea.
