Whether lawyers are ready to go to trial in the case of a Palmdale man killed in a highway crash two years ago is the purpose of a court hearing scheduled for December.
Joe Lopez, 27, of Littlerock, appeared Wednesday in San Fernando Superior Court where he was ordered to return on Dec. 2 for a “readiness hearing,” said Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Lopez, charged with vehicular manslaughter, is accused of slamming into the back of a parked car on the shoulder of Highway 14 on Aug. 13, 2017, killing an occupant of the car, 62-year-old Sam H. Edinburgh, of Palmdale.
Lopez was reportedly driving a 2004 Toyota Matrix northbound on Highway 14, north of Soledad Canyon Road, where he started approaching a Toyota Corolla, according to investigators with the California Highway Patrol.
Lopez’s car drifted into the right shoulder, and the front of the car collided with the Corolla, according to investigators.
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On Twitter: @jamesarthurholt
