21-Year-old Huntington Beach Man Charged with Vehicular Manslaughter for Killing Friend who was “Car Surfing” on His Pickup Truck on Pacific Coast Highway at Speeds of More[...]

21-Year-old Huntington Beach Man Charged with Vehicular Manslaughter

for Killing Friend who was "Car Surfing" on His Pickup Truck on Pacific Coast Highway

at Speeds of More than 50 Miles Per Hour

SANTA ANA - A 21-year-old man who was driving more than 50 miles per hour and pulling his 20-year-old friend on an e-Bike to "car surf" on Pacific Coast Highway last summer has been charged with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence after his friend fell off the vehicle and died from his injuries three days later.

Brandon Scott Soleau, 21, of Huntington Beach, has been charged with one felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in the death of 20-year-old Kolby Kekoa Aipa. Soleau faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison if convicted. He is scheduled to be arraigned on July 23, 2026 at the Stephen K. Tamura West Justice Center in Westminster in Department W12.

On August 2, 2025, at about 10:30 p.m., Soleau is accused of picking up eight passengers in his 2015 Toyota Tacoma, including three passengers in the bed of the pickup truck, following a movie premiere in Huntington Beach.

Aipa is accused of riding alongside Soleau's truck on an e-Bike while Soleau drove on a service road parallel to Pacific Coast Highway and asking Soleau if he could grab on and "car surf." Soleau is accused of giving Aipa permission to do so and Aipa grabbed on to Soleau's pickup truck by putting his arm through the open front passenger window while riding his e-Bike.

It is illegal under the California Vehicle Code for any "person riding a motorcycle, motorized bicycle, bicycle, coaster, roller skates, sled or toy vehicle" to attach themselves to a vehicle on the roadway. Aipa was also not wearing a helmet.

Soleau is accused of merging onto southbound Pacific Coast Highway at approximately 50 miles per hour while a passenger in the truck filmed Aipa still riding with his arm through the truck window. After more than a mile, near Seapoint Street, Aipa lost control and fell.

Aipa was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange in critical condition, and he died three days later from blunt head trauma.

"This tragedy cost the life of a young man with his entire future ahead of him and will forever impact a young man who will have to live the rest of his life knowing that he killed his friend," said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. "This is a stark reminder that every action and every decision have a consequence, and in this instance the price of those decisions was the life of a 20-year-old man and that is a price no one should ever have to pay."

Senior Deputy District Attorney Alyssa Staudinger of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.

Click here for full press release.