BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A man who authorities say drove 99 mph before crashing into an SUV in northwest Bakersfield, killing a school counselor, was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail, prosecutors said.

Ismael Alfaro-Marquez also was sentenced to two years’ probation. He pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Just before midnight on April 6, 2021, Alfaro-Marquez’s vehicle slammed into an SUV driven by Carrie Cuca Lopez at Calloway Drive and Turnwater Avenue.

The 43-year-old counselor at Vista High School was thrown from the SUV. She wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

According to a court filing, Alfaro-Marquez was traveling north on Calloway when Lopez “made a left turn to go into the neighborhood not expecting him to be traveling twice the posted speed limit” of 50 mph.

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