A Novato woman was sentenced to 12 years in prison Wednesday for a drunk-driving crash on Highway 101 near Petaluma that killed her own mother and aunt, two women who relied on her as their main source of transportation. Kenia Alegria pleaded no contest last month to two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and Sonoma County Judge Robert LaForge handed down the sentence during a hearing that lasted just five minutes.
According to The Press Democrat, the Feb. 11 crash killed Alegria's 61-year-old mother, Teresa Renderos, and her 60-year-old aunt, Flor Vasquez Desolis, 60, as the three were driving home from a restaurant. Renderos died at the scene, while Vasquez Desolis died more than a week later. Neither woman was wearing a seatbelt, and both were thrown from the BMW Alegria was driving, the paper reported.
Alegria's blood-alcohol content was at least 0.20 percent, more than double California's legal limit of 0.08 percent, per the same account. She was injured in the crash and later released from Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital before being arrested about a week afterward. She first appeared in court on Feb. 19, initially facing murder charges, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and two DUI-related counts.
A Second Death Reshaped the Charges
Prosecutors filed additional counts of murder and vehicular manslaughter after Vasquez Desolis died, the station's report notes. According to FeedLand, that expansion happened on March 5, when Alegria appeared before Judge Lynnette Brown in Sonoma County Superior Court, 13 days after her aunt succumbed to her injuries. The double-fatal collision took place on northbound Highway 101 near Petaluma Boulevard South, a main entry and exit point for the highway in southern Sonoma County, FeedLand reported.
California Highway Patrol Officer David DeRutte said the murder charge was recommended because Alegria had a previous DUI arrest, per the article. That prior case traced back to January 2022, when she was arrested for DUI and later charged with misdemeanor DUI in Mendocino County Superior Court, facing a special allegation that her blood-alcohol content was at least 0.15 percent. She pleaded guilty in March 2023 and was placed on three years of probation, with a judge ordering her not to drive with any amount of alcohol in her system during that period, the outlet noted.
Why Murder Charges Are Often a Bargaining Chip
Under California Vehicle Code Section 23593, every person convicted of DUI receives a mandatory Watson advisement, warning that driving while impaired is extremely dangerous to human life and that killing someone in a future DUI crash can bring second-degree murder charges carrying 15 years to life in prison, according to Gressley & Donaldson. The rule stems from the 1981 California Supreme Court ruling in People v. Watson. In California DUI homicide cases involving prior convictions, prosecutors frequently file those Watson murder charges as leverage during plea negotiations, often agreeing to drop the murder counts if a defendant pleads guilty or no contest to gross vehicular manslaughter, per Shouse Law Group.
That is effectively what happened with Alegria. She entered her plea before the preliminary hearing stage, and her public defender, Joe Bisbiglia, said she wanted to accept responsibility early on. After the hearing, Bisbiglia told The Press Democrat that his client expresses sincere remorse.
California Penal Code Section 191.5(a) defines gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated as a felony carrying a standard state prison term of 4, 6, or 10 years for a principal count, according to FindLaw. Alegria's 12-year sentence broke down under California law to 10 years for one count and two years for the other. The offense is also classified as a serious felony under California's Three Strikes law, according to Wallin & Klarich, meaning it counts as a strike that can double future felony sentences and limit how much custody credit an offender can earn.
Recent DUI-Related Crashes in Petaluma
Hoodline previously reported on a Napa driver's crash and foot chase in Petaluma just days after Alegria's collision.
The fatal crash that killed Renderos and Vasquez Desolis underscores how a single impaired driver already under a court-ordered alcohol restriction can still turn a routine drive home into a deadly one.
