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POMONA (CNS) - A 21-year-old man with a prior DUI conviction pleaded no contest to charges stemming from a wrong-way DUI crash in Pomona that left a 6-year-old boy dead and the boy's father seriously injured.
Franky Antonio Provencio pleaded no contest Thursday to voluntary manslaughter, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence of a drug causing injury within 10 years of another DUI offense, along with admitting allegations that he caused great bodily injury, according to Ricardo Santiago of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
Provencio was immediately sentenced to 14 years and four months in state prison and waived back credit for two years and five months he had already spent behind bars, bringing his total sentence to about 17 years, according to Santiago.
Provencio was driving a 2001 GMC Yukon north on White Avenue near McKinley Avenue when the vehicle crossed into opposing traffic and struck the southbound pickup truck in which Julian George and his father were riding on May 7, 2019.
The boy died at the scene from blunt head trauma, according to records from the coroner's office.
The boy's father was in a coma for two weeks and is “permanently disabled,'' Deputy District Attorney Yoobin Kang-Hernandez told a judge at a hearing last December.
The prosecutor noted then that the defendant was driving while under the influence of methamphetamine.
Provencio was arrested by Pomona police three days after the crash.
The criminal complaint alleged that Provencio had a prior conviction in January 2019 for driving under the influence of a drug.
He was initially charged with murder, but that count was dismissed as a result of his plea.
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