Drugs found in system of woman driving SUV in fatal crash with L.A. bus, prosecutors say

The 36-year-old woman charged with murder in a violent, high-speed crash that killed two people in Chatsworth on Tuesday was under the influence of drugs and had narcotics in the car when she drove the wrong way on city streets and broadsided a Metro bus, prosecutors said.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office on Thursday charged Bailee Lynn Rios with reckless driving, driving under the influence and two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of 46-year-old Daniel Castillo and 31-year-old Gage Weida, who was ejected from the bus during the crash.

“The tragedy of the Rios car crash was entirely preventable,” Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said during a news conference on Thursday.

Rios was not charged in connection with the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of a pilot, an NBC4 reporter and a bystander. The helicopter had been hovering a few blocks from the traffic collision, providing a live feed for television news, when it appeared to suddenly lose power and crash.

Rios was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in San Fernando court, but was not taken from the jail to the courthouse because of a medical event. She is now expected to appear in court on Friday, according to officials.

If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Hochman said.

Video footage of the crash show Rios’ 2004 Ford Expedition speeding on the wrong side of the road on De Soto Avenue, barreling through a red light at the intersection where the avenue meets Nordhoff Street, at roughly 5 p.m. The SUV narrowly avoids a car in the intersection before plowing directly into the side of the Metro Line 166 bus.

Rush hour traffic was moving slowly when Rios’ Expedition entered one of the busiest junctions in the San Fernando Valley, but the SUV did not appear to brake before it T-boned the bus, witnesses said.

The impact was so powerful that the front end of the SUV nearly disappeared into the bus’ frame. Castillo and Weida died at the scene. One passenger, who suffered severe injuries, and five others with non-life-threatening injures were taken to hospitals.

Read more: At least 5 dead in helicopter crash and bus accident in Chatsworth. Driver arrested

Rios mother, Cindy Rios, declined to comment to The Times when reached by phone on Thursday. But she told the Associated Press this week that she was sorry for the families involved.

“The fact that my daughter was involved and was the cause of it is just extremely disturbing,” she told the outlet. “My daughter’s alive. People lost their lives.”

Investigators gathered video from a matrix of security cameras that surround the busy intersection to support their contention that Rios’ actions amounted to murder with implied malice, according to law enforcement sources.

Authorities are also reviewing the SUV’s event data recorder to determine Rios’ speed, braking and acceleration in the seconds before the deadly crash.

That data proved key in prosecutors securing a double murder conviction in 2024 against Rebecca Grossman. In that case, prosecutors said Grossman was impaired by alcohol and Valium when she recklessly sped her Mercedes through a residential neighborhood, chasing her ex-Dodger boyfriend before killing two young boys in a crosswalk.

Prosecutors can prove murder charges based on someone’s intent to kill or through a defendant’s conscious disregard for human life, known as implied malice, legal experts told The Times.

“If you voluntarily behave in a manner that is so obviously and inherently dangerous to human life...a jury could say you’re acting with a wanton and malignant heart,” said Matt Murphy, a former Orange County homicide prosecutor.

Dmitry Gorin, a former prosecutor, said in this case authorities would be able to prove implied malice from Rios’ driving.

“Here, the alleged wrong-way driving, high speed, running a red light, and near collision before striking the bus could be used to show she knew her conduct was dangerous to human life and continued anyway,” he said.

The conduct and the resulting deaths would be a “very compelling theory for a jury to find her guilty of murder,” Gorin said.

Read more: Dramatic recording could help answer why NBC4 helicopter crashed

Court records and interviews paint a picture of Rios as a woman who had long been dogged by drug addiction.

Rios’ friend Lanise Ward told The Times in an interview that Rios was sober when the two met for lunch about a month ago. She had been going to Narcotics Anonymous meetings and had been clean for the longest stretch since she began using drugs as a teen, Ward said.

“I really thought this time she was going to do it,” Ward said. “She had been clean for a year and a half already.”

In Simi Valley, where Rios spent much of her life, she had been arrested more than a dozen times by local police mostly on suspicion of drug-related offenses, authorities told The Times. However, the majority of the arrests do not appear to have resulted in criminal charges, Ventura County court records show.

Ward said Rios told her she began using drugs at 14 and struggled with an addiction to heroin. Rios had been to rehab several times, but couldn’t seem to kick the habit long term until recently, Ward said.

Ward said if Rios relapsed she likely felt deep shame about it.

“I think she was disappointed in herself for getting high again, and I think she was trying to just end it all,” Ward said.

In 2016, Rios was charged with possessing Xanax without a prescription and methamphetamine, both misdemeanors. The court dismissed the Xanax possession count and Rios pleaded guilty to the meth possession charge. She was placed on probation, ordered to submit to random drug tests and was referred to a drug treatment program, according to court records.

Less than a year later, she was accused of violating the terms of her probation, but was given a second chance and ordered to re-enroll in a drug treatment program. In 2018, court records show, she again violated probation and was mandated to a treatment program.

In 2019, she violated probation a third time and was granted conditional revocable release meaning if she got in trouble again she could face jail time, according to court records.

In 2022, Rios was back in court facing misdemeanor charges for being under the influence of a drugs, possession of heroin and Alprazolam, a benzodiazepine commonly prescribed to treat anxiety or panic disorders, and possession of an injection device.

She was also charged with an infraction for driving with a suspended or revoked license. The circumstances around her license suspension were not immediately available. Court records note that it was the result of an accident, but provided no additional detail.

A judge granted her diversion for four months, ordering that she enroll in a Narcotics Anonymous program, which she successfully completed, records show. She ultimately pleaded no contest to driving with a suspended license.

While Rios has no history of receiving a warning from a judge, called a Watson advisement—commonly issued after a driving under the influence conviction—L.A. County prosecutors have used warnings given by officers or others during traffic stops or other incidents to prove defendants showed a disregard for human life.

During the Grossman trial, a California Highway Patrol officer testified that he stopped her for speeding and warned that her that driving above the speed limit could have fatal consequences.

While prosecutors don’t need a Watson advisement to prove second-degree murder it “is a very powerful piece of evidence if they have it,” said defense attorney, Glen Jonas.

“Where there is no record of a court advisement, prosecutors scour prior reports and body cam footage to prove the defendant received a prior warning that her illegal conduct is in inherently dangerous to human life,” Jonas said.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

This article originally appeared on LA Times at https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/woman-high-she-plowed-her-214559528.html