An Orange County jury on Thursday, Feb. 15, found a driver who plowed his pickup into a packed weekend crowd in downtown Fullerton five years ago guilty of three charges, but a mistrial was declared on a fourth.
Christopher Solis was guilty of hit-and-run causing injuries, hit-and-run causing property damage, and being in possession of a drug.
But the panel, which deliberated for about a day, told Superior Court Judge Gary S. Paer that it could not determine if he was guilty of driving while impaired.
The jury’s foreman told Paer it was deadlocked on the DUI charge, 7-5 in favor of guilt. But after four rounds of voting, the jury could not come to a consensus on the most-serious charge.
Solis is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on May 3.
The charges stemmed from the chaotic crash in which Solis slammed into a group of people in Fullerton’s SOCO District shortly before 2 a.m. on Feb. 10, 2019, injuring nine.
The crash occurred as nearby bars were emptying out and hundreds of patrons filled the sidewalks, waiting for Ubers or Lyfts or friends to pick them up. Dashcam video from a passing car showed Solis’ red 2018 Toyota Tacoma appear to swerve around another car and then out of view, followed by a volley of screams as the pickup veered onto the sidewalk filled with pedestrians, hopped a planter and collided with a palm tree.
Bystanders frantically lifted the pickup off of the ground, helping to pull several trapped victims from underneath the vehicle. Angry members of the crowd then pulled Solis from the vehicle and beat him down, kicking and punching him until officers quickly arrived.
Some victims who took the stand to testify recalled headlights bearing down moments before they were struck, or the fear of being trapped under the pickup. Others remembered nothing of the collision, just waking up confused and panicked in hospital rooms. Some grew emotional during their testimony, as they recalled the lingering effects of their injuries.
That Solis was driving the pickup when it struck the victims was never in dispute.
Jurors were instead tasked with determining whether the collision was the result of a deliberate decision to drive intoxicated or a tragic accident.
Solis, now a 27-year-old Anaheim resident, had marijuana and a “street version” of Xanax in his system at the time of the crash, jurors were told by law enforcement officials during the nearly month-long trial in a Santa Ana courtroom. Speaking to officers, Solis that morning explained that “the drunk people got in my way,” adding that “this (expletive) street is too packed, everyone’s drunk.”
Referencing the dash cam footage, Deputy District Attorney Caitlin Harrington told jurors: “Impaired driving, unfortunately at its finest, is what we all see in that video.”
Two hours before the crash, Solis was pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers for speeding on the northbound I-5 near La Paz Road. The officer smelled marijuana and found buds and pills they believed to be Xanax in Solis’ pickup, according to testimony, but Solis passed a field-sobriety test and was cited and allowed to drive off.
Related Articles
2 LA firefighters in critical condition, others injured after truck explosion
Iran blames sabotage for natural gas pipeline explosion
Out-of-bounds skier rescued after night in wilderness near Kirkwood
Prominent African banker among 6 dead in California helicopter crash
One killed in two-car accident in Concord
Solis later told police that he smoked marijuana at a music studio and then later drove to Fullerton to pick up friends at Heroes Bar and Grill. According to the prosecutor, Solis while leaving an alley near Heroes, turned right onto Santa Fe Avenue, rear-ended one ride-share vehicle, clipped a second one and then accelerated and veered right off of the roadway.
Solis’ attorney, Alan Spears, told jurors that Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has “been on a crusade to take Chris down” in order to “show that he is tough on DUI drivers. …
“They rushed to judgment,” the defense attorney said of police and prosecutors. “They decided early on that Chris was responsible for causing the carnage because he was on drugs.”
Spears told jurors that Solis was not under the influence of drugs, explaining that his demeanor when talking to police was the result of head injuries he sustained in the crash and in the subsequent beating by bystanders that “left his brain scrambled.”
The defense attorney alleged that prior to the crash Solis was trying to escape from some other people who were chasing him. Solis tried to maneuver around two illegally parked ride-share vehicles, Spears told jurors. But one of them hit Solis’ pickup, the defense attorney said, setting off the vehicles’ airbags and causing Solis to lose control and veer onto the sidewalk.
Harrington told the judge that despite the mistrial, the D.A.’s Office would not drop the DUI charge against Solis. Whether the D.A.’s Office will pursue a new trial, however, will be determined by March 22 — Spears and Harrington agreed to a conference on whether there would be agreement over the charge.
After the verdicts were read, jurors who gathered in the court hallway said they were not presented enough evidence to decide whether he was truly under the influence when he crashed.
“That was the sticking point for us,” said Catherine Ryan, 65. “Was he impaired?”
Ryan said she was in favor of guilt, saying she believed Solis was “likely high.”
But she said other jurors wanted more evidence concerning when he was believed to have taken the drug.
After Paer declared a mistrial, Solis became visible emotional, hunching over as he sniffed repeatedly and dabbed his eyes with a tissue.
“It was a sense of relief,” Solis said in an interview with the Southern California News Group. “I have a wife. I have a kid. I was scared.”
Solis again became emotional as Paer discussed the next steps of potentially scheduling a retrial over the DUI charge.
“This whole thing has been emotional,” he said. “I think about the victims every day.”
