A 34-year-old Santa Barbara man faces a lengthy prison sentence after pleading guilty Wednesday to two counts of second-degree murder in connection with a DUI crash in Goleta that killed two people in 2021.
Andrew Raymond Burgher faces a sentence of 15 years to life in state prison for the crash that took the lives of Gilberto Arteaga-Gutierrez, 40, of Santa Barbara and Silvia Velasco, 45, of Lompoc, according to a press release from Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch issued Wednesday night.
The crash occurred at about 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 26, 2021, as Arteaga-Gutierrez was driving a 2002 Ford Mustang east on Cathedral Oaks Road with Velasco in the front passenger seat, according to the California Highway Patrol.
A 2016 Toyota 4-Runner driven by Burgher slammed into the back of the Mustang, causing it to spin out and strike two parked vehicles, west of Camino Cascada and about a quarter-mile west of North Kellogg Avenue, the CHP said.
Evidence showed that Burgher, a delivery driver for Uber Eats, was traveling roughly 90 mph in a 40-mph zone, Savrnoch said, with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.16%, twice the level at which a driver is considered drunk under state law.
The guilty pleas came on the day Burgher was scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Santa Barbara for a trial-setting hearing.
He is due back in court on June 13 for sentencing by Judge Jean Dandona, and remains in custody without bail at the Santa Barbara County Jail.
“The dangers of drinking and driving are now notorious, and when the actions of an individual so egregiously endanger the public resulting in a death, our office will not hesitate to prosecute those perpetrators with murder,” Savrnoch said in announcing the guilty pleas.
He commended the California Highway Patrol as well as prosecutors Kevin Weichbrod and Michelle Mossembekker for their work on the case.
Burgher also is a defendant in a wrongful-death civil lawsuit filed by Velasco’s family against Uber and other parties in Superior Court in San Francisco.
The civil action, filed last May, claims Burgher was operating his vehicle while utilizing the Uber app and/or the Uber Eats app, and as “an agent, employee, or partner” of the company.
Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are Portier LLC, an Uber subsidiary that manages delivery services for the company; and Checkr Inc., which provides driver-background checks for the companies.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Velasco’s husband, Richard Velasco; her children, Juan, Ana, Kasandra and Monica Velasco; Jose Alvarado, her grandson; and her mother, Francisca Solis.
The defendants in the lawsuit all have filed responses asserting multiple affirmative defenses to the allegations, among them statute of limitation, lack of proper standing, and asserting that other entities are responsible for any injuries.
That case is not scheduled to go to trial until May 2025.
