Jose Lumbreras, 25, has pleaded no contest on two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated for the deaths of 22-year-old UC Berkeley graduate Milanca Lopez and her 6-year-old son, Xavier Chevez. The Alameda County District Attorney’s office is requesting the maximum 12 years in prison, according to Deputy District Attorney Teresa Drenick.

“It is a tremendous relief to know this particular chapter has come to a close without the trauma of what we knew would be a painful trial for her family and friends,” said Rue Mapp, a UC Berkeley graduate and neighbor of Lopez, in an email. “We will continue to celebrate Milanca and Xavier’s lives and remember the beautiful friend and mother she was in our community.”

Paul Wolf, Lumbreras’ defense attorney, disagrees with the prosecution’s pursuit of the maximum sentence. He said Lumbreras has suffered greatly from the accident and that 12 years is too severe for the crime.

“Jose has never denied nor sought to shirk his responsibility for the damage and pain for which he has shared and continues to experience,” Wolf said. “He loved both of them. It’s an accident, and he’s responsible for it.”

Wolf will argue for a lighter penalty during Lumbreras’ sentencing on June 11.

At approximately 1 a.m. on May 18, 2012, Lumbreras drove into a tree in central Berkeley, killing Lopez and seriously injuring Chevez. According to police, his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit.

Chevez was placed on life support and died from his injuries one week later at Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland.

Prior to her death, Lopez and her son lived in university student housing at University Village in Albany. Lopez began studying at UC Berkeley in 2007 and was planning to begin a master’s program for teaching at UCLA following her graduation.

Lumbreras came to UC Berkeley in 2010 after receiving a degree in sociology from UC Santa Barbara. He received a graduate degree from UC Berkeley’s ethnic studies department not long before the accident.

The couple was allegedly drinking in celebration of their recent graduations prior to the collision, Wolf said.

Lumbreras is currently being held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, and his bail is set at $200,000, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office inmate locator.

“It’s one of the most tragic cases I’ve ever been involved in, and I’ve been a criminal defense lawyer for 37 years,” Wolf said. “It caused nearly intolerable injury and loss to three people and their respective families.”

Andy Nguyen is the lead crime reporter. Contact him at anguyen@dailycal.org
and follow him on Twitter @Andy_Truc.

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City Councilmember Jesse Arreguin presided over the meeting and fielded questions — along with City Manager Christine Daniel and Sgt. Robert Rittenhouse of Berkeley Police Department’s Traffic Bureau — regarding streets in the western portion of the neighborhood bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Sacramento Street.

“There are specific things that could be done to slow down traffic and make certain intersections safer,” Arreguin said. “We need to look at all options and come up with a plan for what we’re going to do, because it’s not one intersection — it’s the whole area there are issues.”

More than 40 people showed up at the meeting, which convened as a result of various complaints and concerns raised by community members.

“Traffic safety has always been an issue that we’ve followed,” said Anthony Sanchez, legislative aide to Arreguin. “Recently, it was sort of brought to the fore because of the fatal accident on California and Allston.”

UC Berkeley alumna Milanca Lopez died in May when the car she was traveling in struck a tree at California Street and Allston Way, killing her and her 6-year-old son, who died a week later in the hospital. Although the person driving the car was allegedly intoxicated at the time, Arreguin said the lack of visibility at the intersection may have helped contribute to the accident.

Members of the community voiced their concerns about the need for more four-way stops at various intersections, the lack of visibility at traffic circles and vehicles — including police cruisers — speeding through residential neighborhoods.

Berkeley resident Jonah Markowitz, who is legally blind and uses a wheelchair for mobility, said cars and plants on the sidewalk often impede his movement.

“Cars that are parked wherever they are have forced me to call the police force so I don’t have to go out onto the street,” he said. “For me to call the police if cars are blocking the driveway during my regular route … it’s not a personal thing against neighbors — it’s for my own personal safety after having been hit by five cars.”

Various solutions proposed by community members included placing four-way stops at every intersection and placing a better emphasis on educating people about traffic and road safety.

“We’re already evaluating some of those issues, but there’s a lot more that we need to do,” Arreguin said. “I’ve been hearing concerns from people who have lived in this neighborhood for a number of years, and we’re going to come up with a plan about how we can make our streets safer, and we need to work with the community in moving that forward.”

Arreguin said he would meet with Daniel the following day to discuss the concerns raised by the community and believes solutions will begin being implemented within the year.

Contact Andy Nguyen at anguyen@dailycal.org.

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According to police, Lumbreras’ blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit when the car he was driving car crashed into a tree in central Berkeley shortly after 1 a.m. on May 18, killing 22-year-old UC Berkeley alumna Milanca Lopez and seriously injuring her six-year-old son, Xavier Chevez.

Xavier died Friday at Children’s Hospital Oakland after being comatose for a week following the accident.

The Alameda County District Attorney originally charged Lumbreras with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and drunken driving causing injury but amended the charges Wednesday to include a second count of manslaughter.

Deputy District Attorney Teresa Drenick said that although the charges were amended, Lumbreras did not appear in court for his scheduled hearing on Wednesday because he is still in the hospital with injuries sustained in the accident.

Adelyn Baxter is the news editor.

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Xavier Chevez had been on life support with minor brain function since the accident, in which the car he and his mother were passengers in hit a tree near a traffic circle on California Street in Downtown Berkeley. The car was being driven by Lopez’s boyfriend and UC Berkeley graduate student Jose Lumbreras, 33, whose blood alcohol level at the time was more than twice the legal limit, according to Alameda County court documents.

Lopez was found dead at the scene, while Lumbreras and Xavier were both rushed to medical centers with serious injuries. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau confirmed Monday that Xavier died around 6:30 p.m. Friday at Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Xavier and his mother lived in student housing at University Village in Albany since Lopez began studying at UC Berkeley in 2007. Xavier walked with his mother at her commencement ceremony earlier in the month. Lopez planned to begin a master’s program for teaching at UCLA in the fall.

“Milanca and Xavier were remarkable people who against all odds were moving on to an exciting season at UCLA graduate school,” said UC Berkeley alumna Lily Pineda, in a Facebook post on the memorial page created after Milanca’s death.

Lumbreras has been charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and drunken driving causing injury by the Alameda County district attorney.

“Xavier believed that there shouldn’t be any borders among people,” said Xavier’s father Javier Chevez, in a post on gofundme.com, where family members have set up a donation fund for Xavier’s family. “(He believed) that we should all love each other no matter what. He has left a big impact on the Berkeley community.”

Adelyn Baxter is the news editor.

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According to Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, the fatal crash was reported to Berkeley Police Department at 1:13 a.m. Officers responded to the scene at California Street, just north of Allston Way, where they found the Cadillac she was traveling in had struck a tree.

Lopez was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver — UC Berkeley graduate student Jose Lumbreras, 24 — and Lopez’s young son, Xavier, were both taken to local hospital trauma units with serious injuries, according to police. Student Parent Programs and Services director Alice Jordan said Xavier remains in critical condition at Children’s Hospital in Oakland as of Tuesday afternoon.

Lopez attended Hawthorne Math and Science Academy in Southern California and moved with her infant son to Berkeley in 2007 to attend UC Berkeley as a freshman, according to Jordan. She participated this month in the campus’ spring commencement ceremony and was planning to finish classes this summer.

Jordan said Lopez will receive her degree posthumously in Social Welfare. She said Lopez was ready to embark on a master’s program for teaching at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies in the fall.

According to Jordan, Lopez was a very active member within the Berkeley student-parent community.

“In her time at Cal, Milanca touched the lives of many students and staff and she was at the heart of a caring student parent community,” Jordan said in an email.

Lopez was a past president of the Student Parent Association for Recruitment and Retention and actively organized her community to protest tuition increases and child care budget cuts. In 2009, Lopez was quoted speaking out against UC system budget cuts to the Golden Gate Xpress, the San Francisco State University student newspaper.

“Milanca was honest and open about both the struggles and the victories that are inevitable as a parenting student at Cal and she was very loved by our community,” wrote Ginelle Perez, a counselor at the campus’s Transfer, Re-entry and Student Parent Center, in a post on the association’s Facebook page.

“She had a heart of gold and always continued to give back,” said Geraldine Gomez, a fellow student and friend of Lopez, in an email. “She worked with Gift of Life volunteering and raising money for sick children in Peru.”

According to Jordan, Lopez also used her confidence in math to tutor her fellow student parents in informal Graduate Record Exam prep sessions and assist their children with their homework.

“She was one of the best, most loving and dedicated mothers I have ever known,” said Gomez. “Her son was her world and her his.”

Lopez had a large and loving family, many of which traveled to Berkeley to celebrate her accomplishments during last week’s commencement ceremony. In a Facebook post, Perez said Lopez’s love for her family was “fierce … especially (for) her son.”

A candlelight vigil was held on May 20 at the site of the accident on behalf of Lopez’s family, where mourners left photos, messages and flowers around the base of the damaged tree. A formal funeral service will be held, though no date has been set as of yet.

Family members have also set up a donation fund to assist the family with any possible financial burdens.

At the core of the emotions shared by all those who loved Lopez is a poignant feeling of regret that she was not able to realize her dream to reach others through her work as an educator.

“She loved working and giving back to a variety of marginalized and underprivileged students,” said Audra Casanova, UC Berkeley alumna and Lopez’s friend, in an email. “It is a sad loss not only for the UC Berkeley student parent community but for the many children that will never be able to benefit from the hugely passionate heart and great mind that Milanca was guided by.”

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Jose Lumbreras, 24, was driving a Cadillac in which Milanca Lopez, 22, and her six-year-old son, Xavier, were passengers when he struck a roundabout and then collided with a tree early Friday morning on California Street just north of Allston Way.  Lopez, a 2012 UC Berkeley graduate, was pronounced dead at the scene while both Lumbreras and Xavier were taken to local hospital trauma units, according to a press release from Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.

Lumbreras, a resident of Berkeley and a UC Berkeley graduate student in ethnic studies, was arrested Tuesday at Highland Hospital in Oakland. The Alameda County District Attorney charged Lumbreras with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, drunken driving causing injury and enhancements for allegedly causing Xavier “to become comatose due to brain injury and to suffer paralysis,” according to court documents obtained from Deputy District Attorney Teresa Drenick.

The documents state that Lumbreras’ preliminary blood alcohol content was .219 percent — the legal state limit is 0.08 percent — and police estimate his speed was at least 64 mph when he collided with the tree.

Xavier, who was riding in the back of the car, remains in critical condition at Children’s Hospital Oakland and is currently on life support with minor brain function present, according to the documents.

A vigil was held for Lopez, who lived in University Village in Albany with her son, at Presentation Park on Saturday, where friends and family gathered in front of the tree the car collided with.

Anjuli Sastry is an assistant news editor.

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