A Sacramento County jury has found 55-year-old Vicente Jose Perez guilty of second-degree murder and hit-and-run in the October 2024 death of 38-year-old cyclist Jordan Nicolas Rodriguez, who was struck and killed while riding his bike in the Robla area of North Sacramento. Perez fled the scene after the crash, and prosecutors say his blood alcohol level was nearly double the legal limit at the time.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the jury returned its guilty verdict after prosecutors laid out how Perez drove under the influence of alcohol on October 12, 2024, struck Rodriguez as he rode his bicycle, then drove away from the crash rather than stopping to help. Perez lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a ditch, and he never called police to report what happened, per the same account. Rodriguez, a Sacramento resident, died from blunt force injuries at the scene near Marysville Boulevard and Main Avenue.
When Sacramento police officers eventually located the suspect vehicle, it showed significant damage, and investigators found human biological material on the driver's side, roof and trunk, the Bee reported. Officers who contacted Perez noted signs of intoxication including the odor of alcohol, red and watery eyes, and slurred speech, and prosecutors said he performed poorly on field sobriety tests at the scene.
Chemical Tests Showed Alcohol and THC
Preliminary breath tests at the scene recorded alcohol levels of 0.14% and 0.13%, according to the Bee's reporting on the case, while a subsequent blood test confirmed a 0.14% blood alcohol concentration — well above California's legal limit of 0.08% for drivers. The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office put the official blood alcohol figure at 0.142%, along with detectable levels of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, in Perez's system at the time of testing.
Perez had a prior conviction for driving under the influence and had been ordered to attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving Victim Impact Panel discussion addressing the dangers and consequences of impaired driving, per the Bee. That prior history became central to how prosecutors built their case for murder rather than a lesser manslaughter charge.
Why Prosecutors Pursued a Murder Charge
California prosecutors can escalate fatal DUI crashes to second-degree murder under a legal doctrine known as a “Watson murder,” stemming from the 1981 California Supreme Court case People v. Watson, which held that intoxicated driving can constitute implied malice when a driver knowingly acts with conscious disregard for human life. Implied malice is commonly established when a driver has a prior DUI conviction or has attended mandatory DUI awareness education, exactly the circumstances prosecutors cited against Perez.
At his original arrest on October 13, 2024, Sacramento Police had booked Perez on felony gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run, as CBS News reported at the time, before the District Attorney's Office formally upgraded the charges to second-degree murder. A second-degree Watson murder conviction under California Penal Code 187 carries a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life in state prison and counts as a serious felony strike, according to legal guidance published by an Orange County DUI attorney.
Perez remains in custody at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove, per the Bee, and is scheduled to be sentenced on October 23 in Sacramento Superior Court. Prosecutors say he faces a maximum sentence of 19 years to life in prison. The case, tracked under file #24FE017872, was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Frances Cobarrubio of the Major Crimes Unit, with sentencing set before Judge Helena Gweon in Department 13B, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.
A Dangerous Stretch of Marysville Boulevard
The crash site at Marysville Boulevard and Main Avenue sits along a corridor the City of Sacramento has targeted for a safety overhaul. Under the city's Marysville Boulevard Vision Zero capital improvement project, planners have outlined lane and bikeway changes, along with traffic-signal modifications.
The fatal crash underscores the dangers impaired driving can pose to cyclists.
This is not the only recent fatal crash in the area involving a suspected drunk driver and cyclists. In May, a suspected drunk driver lost control of a pickup truck and fatally struck two e-bicyclists near Mather, KCRA reported. And in July 2021, 76-year-old cyclist Michael Dodson died after an impaired driver bypassed security gates and drove onto the American River Parkway trail, striking a group of club cyclists, according to CBS News.
Hoodline previously reported Perez's initial arrest in October 2024, when he was booked on suspicion of DUI following the hit-and-run that killed Rodriguez. This week's conviction and the scheduled sentencing mark the case's resolution nearly two years after the crash.
