Autopsy Says Bachan Had Blood-Alcohol Level of .17

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/100209_autopsy_says_bachan_had_blood-alcohol_level_of_.17/

By William M. Macfadyen, Noozhawk Publisher

Couple charged in USC freshman's hit-run death will stand trial next month

Adrianna Bachan, the USC freshman from Montecito who was struck and killed in a hit-and-run collision near the USC campus, was drunk at the time of the crash, according to her autopsy report.

The autopsy report, first obtained and reported by the online-only Neon Tommy news publication, concluded that Bachan, 18, had a blood-alcohol level of .17. Supervising criminalist Dan Anderson of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Department called her “double drunk,” Neon Tommy said. The legal limit is .08 and the legal drinking age is 21.

Claudia Cabrera, 30, of Los Angeles, is accused of driving the car that allegedly ran a red light and struck Bachan and a fellow student, Marcus Garfinkle, 19, of Scottsdale, Ariz., about 3 a.m. March 29. The students were hit in a marked crosswalk on Jefferson Boulevard at Hoover Street, on the north side of campus. Bachan died of her injuries.

Witnesses reported that the car drove about 400 feet with Garfinkle embedded in the hood and windshield before the driver stopped and a passenger — later identified as Cabrera’s husband, Josue Luna, 33 — got out and threw him to the ground. Garfinkle’s legs were broken and he suffered numerous other injuries.

An intense police search and a $235,000 reward resulted in several tips that led to the pair, who were arrested in April. Los Angeles police said Cabrera was driving with a suspended license for unpaid traffic tickets at the time of the collision and that the couple’s 7-month-old infant also was in the car.

Cabrera and Luna have pleaded not guilty to charges of vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run causing great bodily harm. They are to stand trial Nov. 4.

Garfinkle said Bachan did not appear drunk.

“I’m a pretty good drinker,” Neon Tommy quoted him as saying. “So I know I was not very drunk at all. ... (Bachan) was not anywhere near inebriated. We had a full conversation.

“If she was dead sober, we would still have gotten into that accident. If she was blackout, we would still have gotten into that accident. If the light was purple, we would still have gotten into the accident,” he told Neon Tommy, a student-run online news project of USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism.

Bachan, the daughter of Carmen and James Bachan of Montecito, was a 2008 graduate of Santa Barbara High, where she captained the girls’ soccer team as a senior. She was an environmental studies major at USC and a new member of Pi Beta Phi sorority.

— Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk.

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