The LA County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that a young man has pleaded not guilty to murder and DUI charges related to a crash in Northridge that killed an off-duty LAPD officer and a man who was about to join the LAPD school.
If Brian David Olivarez, who was 20 years old at the time and is now 21 years old, pleads guilty to two counts of murder and one count of driving while drunk, he will spend the next 16 years and eight months to life in state jail, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Olivarez was charged in connection with the crash on November 4, 2023, that killed Los Angeles Police Department Officer Darrell Cunningham while he wasn’t on duty and hurt two other people. Cunningham’s passenger was Jorge Soriano.
Officer Brandon Jeon of the Los Angeles Police Department told the judge in December that investigators thought Olivarez’s 2008 BMW 328i was going between 80 and 97 mph on Roscoe Boulevard, which has a 40 mph speed limit. the defendant was driving westbound on Roscoe Boulevard.
Alexander Martinez, another LAPD officer, said in court that he had warned the defendant about the risks of speeding and running a red light. He also said that the defendant could be charged if he killed someone after seeing him run a red light at the same intersection at Roscoe Boulevard and Lindley Avenue about six months before the fatal crash.
“He nodded his head in agreement,” the officer said, adding that he had to drive 60 mph to catch up with the young man and give him a ticket for two violations, one of which was not having a driver’s license.
A third LAPD officer, Jeffrey Ngo, said in court that he thought Olivarez, who was unconscious after the crash, was drunk. He said that tests were later done to support his opinion.
Edgar Martinez, a San Bernardino County sheriff’s officer who wasn’t on duty and was riding with Cunningham in the Infiniti, said in court that he didn’t remember the crash but did remember opening his eyes and seeing emergency lights. He said he saw firemen put a sheet over Cunningham’s head and heard them use the Jaws of Life to cut open the car.
Soriano was sitting in front of him, he said, and was “slumped over and unresponsive.”
When asked about his two friends, he said, “They died in the car accident.”
The deputy who wasn’t on duty said he was hurt 11 times, including breaking his right femur and breaking a small bone in his skull. He needed three surgeries and was hospitalized for a little over a month. After he got out of the hospital, he had home care and physical therapy.
The person who was dating Olivarez and was in his car at the time of the accident, Angela Lujan, said she didn’t remember anything about it.
“I just remember realizing that we were in an accident,” she said in court. Later, she said that while she was in the hospital for about two weeks, she had about six surgeries but didn’t get any permanent injuries.
Not long after the accident, Cunningham’s mother said it was “very senseless,” pointing out that it happened at 1:15 a.m., when there was no traffic.
“Why are you so hurried?” “… 1:15 in the morning,” she said.
The person who is Soriano’s aunt said that one bad choice has affected hundreds of people.
