A man who took the lives of two teenagers in a horrific DUI crash is about to walk free after serving just a fraction of his sentence. Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano, a Mexican national convicted for the 2021 deaths of Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin, is set for release in July 2025, barely three and a half years into a 10-year sentence. The news has left families grieving, officials sparring, and a community asking: Where’s the justice?

According to multiple reports, it was just before midnight on November 13, 2021, when Ortega-Anguiano, a convicted felon who was in the country illegally, intoxicated and speeding at nearly 100 mph, plowed his Volkswagen into a Honda on the 405 Freeway near Seal Beach Boulevard. Inside the second vehicle were 19-year-old college students Varfolomeev and Osokin. The impact was catastrophic--their car erupted in flames, and both teens perished. For their families, the loss is a wound that never heals.

Anatoly Varfolomeev, Anya’s father, still recalls local police waking him at 3 a.m. to inform him his daughter knock from police, asking for dental records to identify his daughter’s remains. “It was just like a horror movie from Hollywood,” he told the OC Register. “Three years for killing two kids! It’s confusing to me.”

Ortega-Anguiano pleaded guilty to two felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and a misdemeanor for driving without a license. Orange County Superior Court Judge Kazuharu Makino sentenced him to 10 years, with 334 days of credit for time served and good conduct. But here’s the rub: California law classifies vehicular manslaughter as a nonviolent offense, allowing inmates to earn early release through good behavior and other credits.

“It’s a crazy law,” Varfolomeev told the Southern California News Group, per the OC Register. “Two teenagers were killed when they were burned to death. That’s not a violent crime?”

The OC Register reported that Varfolomeev said he was informed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation about 43-year-old Ortega-Anguiano’s eligibility for release, with Varfolomeev claiming he was told Ortega-Anguiano would be freed to an undisclosed location in Garden Grove. The decision has sparked a firestorm, with families and officials questioning a system that seems to prioritize credits over consequences.

The case has escalated into a national debate, with state and federal officials trading barbs. Multiple outlets reported on Gov. Gavin Newsom's X post in which he blamed Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer for not pursuing second-degree murder charges, calling it a “plea deal” that let Ortega-Anguiano off lightly. According to Gov. Newsom's tweet:

After being deported in 2013, this individual unlawfully re-entered the US & committed heinous crimes. A GOP DA then gave him a plea deal instead of pursuing 2nd-degree murder. CDCR will again coordinate with ICE—as they have w/ 10,000+ inmates—to transfer him before release

Spitzer fired back, arguing that state laws and sentencing reforms are the real culprits.

“Years of California’s crusade to put the rights of criminals over the rights of victims has resulted in the unimaginable pain inflicted on the grief-stricken parents,” Spitzer said, per the OC Register. He noted that Ortega-Anguiano’s nonviolent status under state law made early release inevitable.

The case takes another twist with Ortega-Anguiano’s immigration status. A twice-deported individual, he illegally reentered the U.S. before the crash. Federal officials are now stepping in. Tricia McLaughlin of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called the early release a failure of California’s “sanctuary state” policies, telling the OC Register, “ICE has placed a detainer with the California Department of Corrections.”

Bilal Ali “Bill” Essayli, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, vowed federal action, saying on X, “If the State of California will not seek the full measure of justice against this individual, the @TheJusticeDept will.” Pending federal charges for illegal reentry could mean up to 20 years in prison if convicted, per the Los Angeles Times.

At the heart of this storm are Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin--two bright souls whose lives ended too soon. Anatoly Varfolomeev clings to memories of his daughter’s grace as a ballerina and her dreams of a future career in science. The pain of their loss is compounded by a release that feels like a betrayal, telling the OC Register, “It’s sort of spitting in my face.”

Bill Handel