SACRAMENTO, California — Sacramento police say a 50-year-old Sacramento man, Miguel Guzman, has been arrested and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail in connection with the hit-and-run collision inside Saint Mary's Cemetery on Sunday that killed a 1-year-old girl and injured an adult man. Jail records identify the arrested man by the fuller name Miguel Landeros Guzman. The arrest is the first named-suspect development in a case Awaaz Punjab has followed since Sunday, when police said a person of interest had been detained and detectives were working to establish whether driving under the influence was a factor.
Source: Public Safety News (Sacramento), citing Sacramento Police PIO and jail records
Sacramento Police Department public information officer Marcos Moreno confirmed to Public Safety News that the collision was a hit-and-run. Department spokesperson Officer Allison Smith has spoken for the department on the incident since Sunday. Police have not released the name of the child, and Awaaz Punjab does not name minor victims; the injured man has also not been publicly named by police.
The booking charges, as listed in jail records
According to the jail records reported by Public Safety News, Guzman was booked on five felony charges: Penal Code 191.5(a), gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated — causing a death while driving intoxicated with gross negligence, meaning more than ordinary carelessness; Vehicle Code 23153(g), driving under the combined influence of alcohol and a drug and causing injury; Vehicle Code 23153(b), driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher and causing injury; Vehicle Code 20001(a), leaving a crash involving injury or death without stopping and carrying out the duties the law requires, such as identifying yourself and giving reasonable assistance; and Penal Code 273a(a), child abuse or endangerment under circumstances likely to cause great bodily harm or death. These are booking charges reported from jail records: they are allegations, Guzman has not been convicted of anything in this case, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
A second account summarising the Sacramento Police Department's findings reported that detectives determined Guzman was allegedly driving under the influence when he struck the two pedestrians in the 6700 block of 21st Avenue, and that he was arrested on gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and other DUI-related offences before being booked into the county jail. CBS13 Sacramento and KCRA 3 also reported the arrest of a Sacramento man on DUI-related charges in the cemetery crash.
What happened on Sunday, November 1
Officers responded just after 4:45 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, to a vehicle-versus-pedestrian collision in the 6700 block of 21st Avenue, inside Saint Mary's Cemetery in south Sacramento. Officers found an adult man and a 1-year-old child who had been struck. Both were taken to a hospital, where the girl died despite lifesaving efforts; the man's injuries were not life-threatening, police said. The collision happened over the Día de los Muertos weekend, when cemeteries draw large numbers of families visiting graves. Detectives from the department's Major Collision Investigation Unit and crime scene investigators took over the investigation, and a person of interest was detained while detectives examined the driver's involvement and whether impairment played a role — the position police described publicly before Monday's arrest announcement.
Everything in this report about Miguel Guzman's role rests on police statements and jail booking records. Booking charges can be changed, added to or dropped by prosecutors before or after a first court appearance. Guzman is presumed innocent, and no court has made any finding against him.
Background: why these charges carry the weight they do
California law treats a death caused by an intoxicated driver with gross negligence as one of the most serious driving offences short of murder — that is the Penal Code 191.5(a) charge at the top of Guzman's booking list. The two Vehicle Code 23153 counts allege two separate routes to the same DUI-causing-injury offence, one based on combined alcohol-and-drug influence and one on a blood-alcohol level at or above the 0.08 percent legal limit. The Vehicle Code 20001(a) count reflects the hit-and-run element police confirmed: leaving a crash that injured or killed someone without stopping. The child-endangerment count, Penal Code 273a(a), is the charge prosecutors and police reach for when a child's death or the risk of great bodily harm is itself part of the allegation.
What happens next
Jail records list Guzman's total bail at $470,000 and his next court appearance for Tuesday, November 3, at 1:30 p.m. in Department 63 — a courtroom inside the Lorenzo Patiño Hall of Justice, in the Main Jail building at 651 I Street in Sacramento. At that first appearance the charges prosecutors have decided to file are expected to be read, and questions of bail and custody can be revisited. The police investigation remains active: anyone with information about the collision is asked to contact the Sacramento Police Department at (916) 808-5471. Awaaz Punjab will follow the court proceedings and will not name the child, in line with our minor-safety rule.