{"id":468179,"date":"2026-09-18T18:40:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/468179\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T18:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:40:43","slug":"fresno-county-man-sentenced-to-11-years-in-dui-crash-that-killed-1-injured-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/468179\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno County man sentenced to 11 years in DUI crash that killed 1, injured 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 25-year-old Caruthers man was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in state prison for a <a href=\"https:\/\/kmph.com\/news\/local\/driver-arrested-for-dui-following-fatal-crash-saturday-in-fresno-county-floral-avenue-willow-ave-california-highway-patrol-toyota-nissan-community-regional-medical-center-saul-galvez-diaz-arrested\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2025 DUI head-on crash <\/a>that killed a 28-year-old passenger and injured three others, including a 10-year-old girl.<\/p>\n<p>Saul Galvez Diaz was sentenced for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and two counts of felony driving under the influence causing great bodily injury. <\/p>\n<p>Fresno County Superior Court Judge Robert Mangano imposed the sentence after Galvez Diaz entered a no-contest plea on May 6th.<\/p>\n<p>The crash happened on January 4, 2025, at the intersection of Willow and Floral Avenues, west of Selma. <\/p>\n<p>Michelle Lawrence, 28, of Caruthers, was a passenger in the other vehicle and died from her injuries. <\/p>\n<p>Lawrence\u2019s 10-year-old daughter and her 61-year-old mother were injured, along with Diaz\u2019s wife, who was 13 weeks pregnant at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators said Diaz was driving a Toyota Camry eastbound on Floral Avenue with his wife, Sifonia Sanchez Carrasco, 22, of Caruthers, in the passenger seat. <\/p>\n<p>They said he turned left onto Willow Avenue into the path of an oncoming Nissan Cube traveling westbound on Floral Avenue.<\/p>\n<p>The 61-year-old woman driving the Nissan couldn&#8217;t avoid the Toyota, and the two vehicles crashed head-on.<\/p>\n<p>All three people in the Nissan were taken to CRMC. Lawrence was not wearing a seat belt and did not survive.<\/p>\n<p>The California Highway Patrol investigation found Diaz\u2019s blood alcohol concentration was 0.16% about two hours after the crash, which is twice California\u2019s legal limit.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators also said he had been arrested about six months earlier by the Fowler Police Department for driving under the influence. His blood alcohol concentration in that case was 0.17%, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pain caused by impaired driving extends far beyond the crash itself,\u201d Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp said. \u201cA young mother lost her life, a child lost her mother, and multiple families will carry the consequences of this defendant\u2019s choices forever. This case serves as a tragic reminder that every decision to drive under the influence puts innocent lives at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 25-year-old Caruthers man was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in state prison for a 2025 DUI head-on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-468179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468179","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=468179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}