It has been virtually a 12 months, and Michael Patton nonetheless desires justice. To him, meaning seeing felony fees filed in opposition to the driving force who killed his son.
The individual behind the wheel wasn’t a drunk driver or a texting teen. Data present he was an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who dozed off on his approach dwelling from work, killing two U.S. Marines who had been stranded on the freeway in Orange County in a disabled automobile.
Investigators with the California Freeway Patrol have requested that prosecutors take into account felony fees in opposition to the deputy, Michael Miscione. The Orange County district legal professional’s workplace confirmed final week {that a} murder prosecutor is contemplating the matter.
“The lack of any life is a tragedy not just for the victims’ household, however for all the group that beloved them,” Kimberly Edds, spokeswoman for the district legal professional’s workplace, wrote in an announcement to The Instances on Thursday. “Considered one of our veteran murder prosecutors is rigorously reviewing the info of the case to find out what felony fees might be confirmed past an inexpensive doubt.”
To Michael Patton, that got here as a welcome growth.
“We hope to see that the district legal professional does prosecute and that he does find yourself doing a while,” he informed The Instances. “The police will not be above the legislation.”
In an announcement Monday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division stated it was conscious of the “tragic accident” involving an off-duty deputy.
“We’ll proceed to observe the investigation,” the division stated.
Miscione couldn’t be reached for remark.
First reported final week by the Orange County Register, the crash that killed James Patton and Samantha Berrios occurred within the early hours of Nov. 5, 2022. It was Patton’s birthday weekend — the lance corporal had simply turned 20 — so, based on his father, he determined to have a good time by going to a hip-hop present in Los Angeles with two buddies. On the way in which again to Camp Pendleton, the driving force hit a median wall on the southbound 5 Freeway, simply south of Crown Valley Parkway in Mission Viejo.
In response to a California Freeway Patrol report, the Marines’ Honda was too broken to drive, so Patton and his buddies received out to name for a tow truck. The driving force — Aden Baker — stayed outdoors the automobile, however Patton and fellow Lance Cpl. Samantha Berrios received again within the automobile as a result of they had been chilly.
Ten minutes later, the automobile was nonetheless sitting within the high-occupancy lane with the lights off at 3:48 a.m. when information say Miscione plowed into them along with his Chevrolet truck.
The 26-year-old deputy had simply gotten off work at 3 a.m. and, based on the report, was driving about 90 mph — greater than 30 mph over the restrict — in a development zone.
When a Freeway Patrol sergeant later requested him what occurred, Miscione stated: “I fell asleep, I fell asleep.” The very last thing he remembered earlier than nodding off, based on the report, was getting on the freeway from State Route 91.
The affect knocked off the bumper and cracked the windshield of Miscione’s truck, however information present it smashed the trunk, shattered the home windows, flattened the rear tires and even crushed the hood of the Marines’ Honda.
Afterward, Miscione was taken to Windfall Mission Hospital for arm and head ache.
Patton and Berrios each died on the scene.
The wreck got here lower than per week earlier than they had been scheduled to deploy to Japan, Nancy Berrios — Samantha’s mom — informed The Instances.
On the cellphone from their dwelling in Florida, Nancy and Miguel Berrios described their daughter as decided and extremely motivated. She beloved music and performed lacrosse at school however did not have any specific profession path in thoughts. Then in her mid-teens, she determined that the army was precisely the type of problem she was on the lookout for.
“She at all times stated she wished to rise above and really feel like she might make a distinction,” Nancy Berrios stated. “Someday simply out of the blue, she stated: ‘I’ll be a Marine.'”
At first, her dad and mom had been shocked.
“However she stored going and did what she needed to do,” her mom stated. “She was a troublesome cookie.”
Although she did not come from a army household, Samantha Berrios joined the Marines in 2021 and hoped to in the future turn out to be a recruiter. She was excited in regards to the upcoming deployment to Japan and thought the journey to Los Angeles together with her fellow Marines could be a contented celebration of her final days in California.
As a boy in Cary, N.C., Patton had at all times dreamed of becoming a member of the Marines, his father stated. He got here from an extended line of Army and Navy veterans, and he took delight in realizing his grandfather had been a part of the Normandy invasion throughout World Conflict II.
After highschool, he went to Parris Island, the place — as a result of he was an Eagle Scout — he began on the rank of personal first-class. He superior to lance corporal and was “effectively on his option to corporal” earlier than he died, his father stated.
“He was very gung-ho on the Marine Corps, and he beloved each minute of it,” Michael Patton informed The Instances.
To Patton, it is irritating that the California Freeway Patrol didn’t inform reporters in regards to the Marines’ deaths, and that it took practically a 12 months to finish the accident report and ship it to native prosecutors.
“It is virtually like they had been saying our son and the Berrioses’ daughter did not matter,” he stated.
The native California Freeway Patrol workplace in San Juan Capistrano didn’t return a name requesting remark. In an electronic mail, the district legal professional’s workplace in Orange County confirmed that prosecutors only in the near past obtained the case.
The Patton and Berrios households, in the meantime, have filed a lawsuit in opposition to the deputy, Los Angeles County and a number of other others. The county deferred to the Sheriff’s Division for remark , and it is not clear whether or not any of the events have formally replied in courtroom but.
“I do know that the deputy did not go away his home pondering, ‘I need to kill these Marines,'” Nancy Berrios stated.
“It was a mistake — and there are penalties for a mistake,” she continued. “In my coronary heart, I do know he did not imply to. However these are our youngsters.”
This story initially appeared in Los Angeles Instances.
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