Former Irvine Attorney Convicted of Killing Semi-Truck Driver While Driving Intoxicated in Fiery 2019 Freeway Crash

Former Irvine Attorney Convicted of Killing Semi-Truck Driver

While Driving Intoxicated in Fiery 2019 Freeway Crash

Santa Ana - An Irvine attorney has been convicted of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated for killing the driver of a semi-truck in a fiery crash on the 22 freeway in 2019 after he crashed into a guardrail while drunk and left his blacked out disabled Honda facing the wrong way on the freeway.

Lotfullah Sohaib Latif, 33, of Irvine, was convicted Monday of one felony count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, one felony count of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, one felony count of driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content of .08% or more causing injury, and three felony enhancements of inflicting great bodily injury. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in state prison when he is sentenced on January 9, 2026.

On June 9, 2019, at 3:55 a.m. California Highway Patrol dispatch received multiple calls about a gray Honda Accord that was blacked out in the lanes on the 22 freeway. A few minutes later, dispatchers received calls about a semi-truck colliding into the Honda and the semi-truck bursting into flames near the 405 freeway and the 22-freeway eastbound near Valley View Avenue. The driver of the semi-truck, 58-year-old Carlos Alberto Lara, was pronounced deceased on scene.

When CHP officers contacted Latif on the right shoulder of the 22 freeway, Latif denied drinking or having been involved in a collision. Officers noticed Latif's license plate near a broken guardrail, his right passenger door on the shoulder and alcohol on his breath. The Honda's Event Data Recorder, known as a vehicle's black box, recorded the Honda going 89 miles per hour five seconds prior to colliding with the guard rail.

"Every day, approximately 34 people die in America in a drunk driving crash. That is one person every 42 minutes who is killed as a result of a selfish decision to get behind the wheel and drive while intoxicated," said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. "Drunk driving is a crime that is 100 percent preventable, and countless innocent lives would be saved if a night of drinking never included getting behind the wheel of a deadly weapon and driving. If this defendant had made the right decision, Mr. Lara would have been able to go home safely to his family that night instead of being killed by a stranger in a completely preventable crash."

Deputy District Attorney Justin Kim of TARGET/Gangs/HIT is prosecuting this case.

Click here for full press release.

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