A jury Friday convicted a Canyon Country man of murder in the Nov. 1, 2023, DUI crash that killed Orlando Gomez Salas, 39.
Prosecutors charged Raul Rosalezs Ramirez with murder because he had a previous DUI and knew the dangers of driving under the influence, they said. Ramirez was not yet old enough to buy alcohol at the time of the crash.
The 23-year-old, who has been held in lieu of $2 million bail since the crash nearly three years ago, was remanded to custody after the verdict. He faces a sentence of up to 15 years to life when he returns to Department J of the San Fernando Courthouse on Oct. 30 for a probation report and sentencing, according to court records.
The jury received the case at 10 a.m. Friday and reached a guilty verdict by 1:30 p.m., according to a court official speaking on background.
The three-day trial included body-worn camera footage from Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Deputy Samuel Curameng, who has previously been recognized for his DUI investigations, along with a transcript of Curameng’s conversation with Ramirez at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital after the crash.
The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office said Curameng obtained a confession while interviewing Ramirez at the hospital. A blood-alcohol test Curameng administered there showed Ramirez was still well above the legal limit several hours after the crash, according to court records and detectives’ statements.
Ramirez declined to testify in his own defense during the trial, according to the minute order.
Witnesses for the prosecution included former Hart High School Principal Jason D’autremont, who was head of the campus when Ramirez watched “Every 15 Minutes” as a student. The program simulates a student’s death from a DUI crash, using first responders, school officials and student volunteers to show the consequences of drunken driving.
Prosecutors said the program was the first of two warnings Ramirez received about driving under the influence. The second came after a Dec. 3, 2022, DUI crash near Bouquet and Seco Canyon roads. A witness testified Ramirez was swerving before he crashed into a parked car just after 3 p.m. That crash site was less than 2 miles from where the fatal crash occurred nearly a year later.
The District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the conviction.
Known colloquially as a “Watson murder,” Ramirez’s conviction carries a maximum sentence of 15 years to life under state law for second-degree murder connected to a DUI crash, with other aggravating factors that could lengthen the sentence.
The term comes from a 1981 California Supreme Court ruling that a driver in a fatal crash can be charged with second-degree murder under a theory of “implied malice” — meaning the driver knew driving under the influence was dangerous, because of previous warnings, and did it anyway.
