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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He died at 4:46 a.m. Thursday morning after another vehicle crashed into his 1996 Toyota Camry, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Vigil. Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau said the cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries.

Lacanlale was driving the Camry — which was carrying three other passengers — when it struck a fallen tree on the highway around 4:15 a.m. just south of the Park Boulevard off ramp, according to Vigil. The three passengers left the car to stand on the right shoulder of the highway while Lacanlale remained standing in the traffic lane, according to Vigil.

Shortly after, a Ford F-150 pickup truck driving southbound on the highway also ran into the tree, causing the Ford to become airborne and hit the Camry, which then hit Lacanlale, according to Vigil.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the impact of the crash knocked part of the tree up the embankment, trapping a woman who was also a passenger of the Toyota. The San Francisco Chronicle said Oakland firefighters used chainsaws to extricate her.

The 59-year-old man who was driving the Ford, the woman and the two other passengers who had been in the Toyota suffered injures and were transported to a hospital, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. None of their injuries were life-threatening.

Lacanlale graduated in 2011 from Central Kitsap High School near Bremerton, Washington. He received a prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship Award in 2011 and planned on pursuing a career in medicine. He lived in Bowles Hall at UC Berkeley.

“He was a fellow Gates Scholar here at Berkeley whom I had the pleasure of meeting a few times … he was part of a family of Gates Scholars who is currently now mourning this tragic loss,” said Matthew Aber, a UC Berkeley freshman.

The highway was closed for several hours following the accident but reopened at 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

“It is truly a tragedy that a guy like (Lacanlale), who had everything going for him from an exceptional intellect to gifted athletic ability to one of the kindest personalities I have ever encountered, would have to leave this world so soon,” said Mitchell Flaherty, a childhood friend of Lacanlale’s, on his Facebook page. “Rest in peace.”

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