DUBLIN — A mistake by an Alameda County prosecutor ended up having a drastic impact on the outcome of a vehicular manslaughter case, with the driver avoiding a murder charge and ultimately receiving a two-year prison term, court records show.
It all centers on a Manteca man named Brayan Romero-Flores, 22, who was identified by Hayward police as the driver in a fatal 2023 drunk driving crash. Romero-Flores allegedly ran a red light, striking another vehicle and killing its driver, 50-year-old Esteban Jimenez, court records show.
At the time, Romero-Flores was on probation for a prior DUI charge. Prosecutors in Alameda County, though, declined to charge Romero-Flores with murder and instead filed less serious vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident charges against him, court records show.
That decision to decline a murder charge was based on a faulty conclusion, the judge and prosecutor in Romero-Flores’ case revealed at a July hearing.
Central to this issue is a legal technicality in California, which says prosecutors must prove the driver in a fatal DUI crash had specific knowledge that drunk driving was dangerous to human life, in order to prove a murder charge. While this may seem self-evident, the law tends to require prosecutors to establish the defendant was warned about the dangers of drunk driving, something that’s routinely done when a person is sentenced for driving under the influence.
In this case, the charging prosecutor — identified in court records as Senior Assistant District Attorney James Meehan — believed that Romero-Flores had not been advised of this when he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor DUI charge months before the fatal Hayward crash. In fact, prosecutors later learned Romero-Flores had been given such an admonishment.
After learning of this mistake, prosecutors declined to file a murder charge, even after Romero-Flores signaled his intent to plead guilty as charged to the manslaughter case. Before accepting his guilty pleas, Judge Clifford Blakely gave prosecutors one final chance to amend the criminal complaint and file a murder case against Romero-Flores, but they declined, according to a transcript of the hearing.
”(Deputy District Attorney Matt) Gaidos came back in the afternoon, spoke with the charging DA, and it is my understanding that his office had no intention of amending to allege murder,” Blakely said at the hearing.
“Yes. That’s my conversation I had with Mr. Meehan, who is the branch head as well as the charging deputy in this case,” Gaidos replied to the judge.
Romero-Flores then entered his guilty pleas. He was sentenced to two years in state prison on Oct. 4. Blakely, who imposed the sentenced, also handed down a four-year, six-month term, but stayed that part of the judgement, meaning the potential prison time is hanging over Romero-Flores’ head should he violate the law again, court records show.
Meehan, a prosecutor of 38 years, is the son of a former Alameda County District Attorney who also served on the county Board of Supervisors. When District Attorney Pamela Price appointed Meehan as interim the office’s East County branch last February, she lauded him as a “seasoned, dedicated prosecutor” in a news release.
The DA’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the case’s outcome.
At the time of the crash, Hayward police said Romero-Flores ran a red light at W. Winton Avenue and Clawiter Road, at around 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2023. He reportedly collided with Jimenez’s car and attempted to run from the scene, but police arrested him a short while later, according to court records.
Romero-Flores was briefly hospitalized with injuries, police said. His blood alcohol level was measured at .11 and cannabis was found in his system too, police said in court records.
Jimenez was described on an online fundraising page as a father of two who was on his way to pick up one of his daughters from volleyball when he was killed.
“Jorge’s passing was completely unexpected, and the tragedy left his family devastated,” the page says.