((HT: OC Register/Fields-Srisavasdi))The man accused of drunken driving in the crash that killed Angel pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others ((pictured, thanks OC Register/Ken Steinhardt)) ordered his injured stepbrother to flee the crash scene, according to testimony in court records made public today.
The more than 200 pages of grand jury transcripts in the case of Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, of San Gabriel, shed light into the details of the crash.Testimony was taken from 14 witnesses, including a Fullerton police officer who testified that Gallo admitted that he shouldn’t have been driving that night.
Gallo’s stepbrother, Raymond Alexandro Rivera, was in the mini-van with Gallo during the crash.
“After the crash, you opened your eyes. Did you see your brother Andrew?’’ asked Deputy District Attorney Susan Price during the grand jury proceedings.
“Yeah. … He was unbuckling his seat belt in the driver’s seat,’’ Rivera answered.
“Did he say anything to you?” Price asked.
“Yeah. I’m going to curse right now so,’’ he replied while testifying.
“He said, ‘Run, Bitch,’ is what he said,’’ Rivera said.
Rivera added that he stayed – while his brother fled the scene. Other witnesses testified to seeing Gallo get out of the mini-van, make a call on his cell-phone and flee the scene. Zenaida Tovar, a passerby who witnessed the crash and stopped to help, testified that Gallo repeated “Oh, (expletive). I’m in trouble.”
Gallo was indicted by the grand jury May 27 and charged with three counts of murder, felony hit-and-run, driving under the influence and causing injury and driving with a .08-percent blood alcohol or higher and causing injury. Rivera also testified that he was with his brother hours before the crash. The pair went to a restaurant called Johnny Carino’s in Covina to surprise Gallo’s girlfriend, who worked at the eatery, according to Rivera’s testimony.
The brothers arrived at 4 p.m. and had two beers each at the bar, Rivera said, to celebrate Gallo starting a new job the next day, as well as getting a government unemployment check. Rivera said he also encouraged Gallo to have a shot of tequila with him.
“We didn’t want to get drunk and do that and go home, but I guess I got carried away,’’ Rivera said. “Then when I ordered the shot, it kind of changed the way the night was going to unfold.”
Rivera told the grand jury that after running an errand, the brothers went to another bar in Covina, The Well, at about 6:30 p.m. The pair had at least two rounds each of beer in over-sized mugs before Rivera testified that he ordered another pint of beer for both of them. Rivera testified that Gallo initially declined the last pint.
“He says, ‘I’m driving. You go ahead and get what you want I don’t want to do it,’” Rivera testified.
“I said, ‘Are you going to turn it down?’ So then we both drank them.”
Fullerton police Investigator Matthew Malone testified that Gallo said he also had several shots of sake, probably from a neighboring bar five doors down. Rivera said he got drunk and asked Gallo to drive when the pair left The Well at 10:30 p.m. and soon after passed out in the mini-van.
“I told him I’m going to start blanking out. …. I told him, ‘You’re going to have to drive, because it’s going to be a real big problem,’” Rivera testified. “I knew he has a much higher tolerance to alcohol than I do.”
The Fullerton crash happened after midnight on April 9. Malone testified that Gallo had no memory of what happened in the 90 minutes between leaving The Well and the crash.
“He stated that he had never been in the city of Fullerton, doesn’t know anyone in the city of Fullerton and doesn’t know why he would be in the city of Fullerton,” Malone testified.
Gallo was speeding in a minivan eastbound on Orangethorpe Avenue while under the influence of alcohol, on probation and driving on a suspended driver's license when he caused the wreck that ended three lives, prosecutors said. Authorities said he ran a red light and crashed into a Mitsubishi that was passing through the intersection.
Three passengers in the Mitsubishi died: Adenhart, 22, who was playing in his fifth professional season and had pitched well that night at Angel Stadium; Courtney Stewart, 20, a student and former Cal State Fullerton cheerleader; and Henry Pearson, 25, a law student working toward becoming a sports agent. A fourth victim, Jon Wilhite, 24, a former player for Cal State Fullerton's baseball team, was critically injured, but survived.
After the crash, Gallo fled, prosecutors said, but he was arrested less than 30 minutes later near the shoulder of the 91 freeway.Gallo had a blood-alcohol level of .19 percent two hours after the crash, prosecutors have said. At the time of the crash, Gallo was on probation for a 2006 conviction for driving under the influence.
During the proceedings, Price asked Malone if he had asked if Gallo thought he should have been driving.
“He stated in quotes ’Absolutely not,’” Malone testified.
Malone testified that Gallo was emotional when he found out that three people had died.“He appeared to have started crying,” Malone testified about Gallo. “And then he made the statement, ‘I (expletive) up.’”
Gallo, held at Orange County Jail, faces a maximum sentence of 54 years and eight months to life in prison if convicted on all counts.
Here's your reminder of what went down a few months back, thanks to our friends at KTTV and MyFoxLA- Bob DeCastro and Amy Murphy were in Fullerton and Anaheim...
And, by the way, you can still get a "Gallo-54" jersey from mlb.com, but you STILL can't get an "Adenhart-34." What in the hell is that...???
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