{"id":310658,"date":"2026-05-11T18:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/310658\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T18:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:38:09","slug":"twist-in-case-of-19-year-old-long-beach-girl-crushed-to-death-by-distracted-driver-in-front-of-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/310658\/","title":{"rendered":"Twist in case of 19-year-old Long Beach girl crushed to death by distracted driver in front of mom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Long Beach driver is now facing <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/09\/us-news\/la-man-withdraws-guilty-plea-for-wrong-way-crash-that-killed-police-cadet\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">criminal charges<\/a> months after authorities say his distracted driving killed a 19-year-old woman as she walked through a strip mall parking lot with her mother.<\/p>\n<p>Desean Edwards, 40, was charged this week with felony vehicular <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/01\/us-news\/oc-mom-charged-with-manslaughter-after-son-allegedly-killed-veteran\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">manslaughter <\/a>with gross negligence in the Nov. 2, 2025, death of Grace Edwards, no relation, in a horrifying crash that unfolded in front of the teen\u2019s mom, according to authorities and court records.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39344406\" width=\"590\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/grace-edwards-twist-case-19-127470970.jpg\" alt=\"Grace Edwards smiling on a beach.\" class=\"wp-image-39344406\"  \/>A Long Beach driver is now facing criminal charges months after authorities say his distracted driving killed a 19-year-old woman as she walked through a strip mall parking lot with her mother. GoFundMe<\/p>\n<p>The 40-year-old was arrested Tuesday, May 5, less than two months after the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s Office filed charges against him.<\/p>\n<p>Grace was walking through the parking lot near Bellflower Boulevard and Stearns Street when police say Edwards struck her with his Lexus sedan while backing out of a parking spot.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators said distracted driving was believed to be a contributing factor.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards stayed at the scene, cooperated with investigators, and was not initially arrested.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGrace was a vibrant and carefree 19-year-old,\u201d Haley and Scott Sousa, who organized the family\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/honoring-grace-edwards-help-her-family-heal?cdn-cache=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">GoFundMe<\/a> fundraiser, wrote. \u201cShe touched the lives of so many, including young families, as she cared for many children at her church and in her community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an emotional twist, Grace had spoken with her parents just days before the fatal collision about becoming an organ donor while renewing her driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39344407\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/127470975.jpg\" alt=\"The exterior of a Five Below store with a large blue sign reading &quot;five BEL\u00b0W hot stuff. cool prices.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-39344407\"  \/>Grace was walking through the parking lot near Bellflower Boulevard and Stearns Street when police say Edwards struck her with his Lexus sedan while backing out of a parking stall. Red Lemon \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it was clear she would not survive her injuries, they knew her wishes were to give life to others by donating her organs,\u201d the Sousas said. \u201cWe are comforted by the fact that her legacy is going to live on and bring life to others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her heart was ultimately donated to an 8-year-old child, according to the fundraiser.<\/p>\n<p>Desean Edwards pleaded not guilty and was released after posting $75,000 bail, court and inmate records show.<\/p>\n<p>If convicted, he could face up to 6 years in state prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Long Beach driver is now facing criminal charges months after authorities say his distracted driving killed a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,339,19076,131,133,132,52609,4182,3586],"class_list":["post-310658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-death","tag-distracted-driving","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-manslaughter","tag-metro","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}