dannno
12-12-2013, 05:10 PM
This is a very sad and tragic story that happened a few days ago in my community.
Raymond Morua
http://media.independent.com/img/photos/2013/12/09/Morua_Raymond-1_t180.jpg?7d662043685d97479ca3193f5d07ca695b5434d c
Mallory Dies
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1905767559/1332067951532.jpg
Raymond Morua was a veteran who fought in the Iraq war in the early 2000's. He came back and had severe PTSD and had problems with alcohol and received two DUIs.
He then decided to turn his life around. He went to a University, graduated and headed the Veterans Affairs organization on campus. He then got a job as district representative for Democratic Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA).
Mallory Dies was a bartender at a very popular bar/club and enjoyed recreational drinking. She was beloved by her friends and peers, was very friendly and outgoing and just a great person.
Last Friday night Raymond went to a party hosted by the Santa Barbara Independent, the publication that ran the two stories on the incident in the two links below. The party lasted until 8:30pm. Almost four hours later, just after midnight, he was driving down a one way street where there is a gas station/convenience store on one side and a very popular club/bar on the other side (NOT the same bar/club Mallory worked at, there are quite a few here). People routinely cross the street in the middle of the street where there is no crosswalk, and this is actually legal there. It is a busy little section of road and generally people drive pretty slow and most of the cars that go through there seem to be taxis.
I don't know what happened or how it happened, but some how Raymond Morua hit Mallory Dies. I don't know if he was being negligent or if Mallory jumped out into the middle of the street suddenly and Raymond Morua just happened to be driving in that path, but Raymond Morua had a .17 BAC. After he hit her he got out of his car and looked back and could see she was being helped by several people. Knowing that when police arrived he would be arrested, get a DUI and lose his job he decided to drive away. A witness said he should stay, but he was very quiet, said "no....no...." and drove off. Then he wrecked his car and police arrested him.
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/dec/11/dui-hit-and-run-victim-dies-suspect-charged-murder/
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/dec/09/dui-hit-and-run-suspect-raymond-morua-has-criminal/
Mallory Dies, unfortunately, was pronounced dead yesterday just after 3pm after about 5 days of fighting in the hospital. They took her off life support, her body was alive but her brain was not.
So I see two big issues here:
1) Overseas empire/PTSD should obviously be brought to the forefront.
2) How do you deal with this type of situation in terms of responsibility?
I can imagine a scenario where Mr. Morua was sloppy, drunk, speeding, driving all over the road and through pure negligence struck this girl in the middle of the street. In this case I think Mr. Morua should be held responsible and receive some time in prison for 3rd degree murder.
But I can also imagine a scenario where Mr. Morua was relatively in control, driving down the street and Mallory was negligent and suddenly stepped in front of his car. I mean, when you cross the street and you aren't in a cross walk, you don't just walk out into the street - you look both ways, or in this case ONE way as it was a one way street. So she obviously was not being careful, which does not necessarily absolve Mrs. Morua of all guilt, but it shows that it is possible that Mallory's negligence of going into the street caused the accident and Mr Morua, drunk or sober, had no way of avoiding her. In that case I don't believe he should be responsible because his BAC was incidental and would not have been responsible to cause the accident.
So of course if you read the articles below and the comments there are a lot of people talking about zero tolerance DUI laws where you can't drink anything before driving, breathalyzers required to start a car, all of the typical responses you might expect when a 'poor innocent girl' is run over by a mad, scathing drunk who should be taken out and shot for even considering getting behind the wheel of a car after consuming alcohol (/s). Then there are people who think the alcohol industry is out of control and the government needs to not allow there to be so many bars, clubs and venues that serve alcohol.
On the other hand, if he is responsible then I think he should do some time in jail. I guess if I were on the jury it would come down to witnesses, of which I am sure there were many.
I got yelled at a lot in the comments for insinuating that maybe it was possible Mallory was partly at fault for stepping out in front of a drunk driver and maybe it wouldn't have mattered whether he was drunk and so maybe we shouldn't send this guy to the execution chamber just yet..
What do you guys think?
Raymond Morua
http://media.independent.com/img/photos/2013/12/09/Morua_Raymond-1_t180.jpg?7d662043685d97479ca3193f5d07ca695b5434d c
Mallory Dies
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1905767559/1332067951532.jpg
Raymond Morua was a veteran who fought in the Iraq war in the early 2000's. He came back and had severe PTSD and had problems with alcohol and received two DUIs.
He then decided to turn his life around. He went to a University, graduated and headed the Veterans Affairs organization on campus. He then got a job as district representative for Democratic Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA).
Mallory Dies was a bartender at a very popular bar/club and enjoyed recreational drinking. She was beloved by her friends and peers, was very friendly and outgoing and just a great person.
Last Friday night Raymond went to a party hosted by the Santa Barbara Independent, the publication that ran the two stories on the incident in the two links below. The party lasted until 8:30pm. Almost four hours later, just after midnight, he was driving down a one way street where there is a gas station/convenience store on one side and a very popular club/bar on the other side (NOT the same bar/club Mallory worked at, there are quite a few here). People routinely cross the street in the middle of the street where there is no crosswalk, and this is actually legal there. It is a busy little section of road and generally people drive pretty slow and most of the cars that go through there seem to be taxis.
I don't know what happened or how it happened, but some how Raymond Morua hit Mallory Dies. I don't know if he was being negligent or if Mallory jumped out into the middle of the street suddenly and Raymond Morua just happened to be driving in that path, but Raymond Morua had a .17 BAC. After he hit her he got out of his car and looked back and could see she was being helped by several people. Knowing that when police arrived he would be arrested, get a DUI and lose his job he decided to drive away. A witness said he should stay, but he was very quiet, said "no....no...." and drove off. Then he wrecked his car and police arrested him.
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/dec/11/dui-hit-and-run-victim-dies-suspect-charged-murder/
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/dec/09/dui-hit-and-run-suspect-raymond-morua-has-criminal/
Mallory Dies, unfortunately, was pronounced dead yesterday just after 3pm after about 5 days of fighting in the hospital. They took her off life support, her body was alive but her brain was not.
So I see two big issues here:
1) Overseas empire/PTSD should obviously be brought to the forefront.
2) How do you deal with this type of situation in terms of responsibility?
I can imagine a scenario where Mr. Morua was sloppy, drunk, speeding, driving all over the road and through pure negligence struck this girl in the middle of the street. In this case I think Mr. Morua should be held responsible and receive some time in prison for 3rd degree murder.
But I can also imagine a scenario where Mr. Morua was relatively in control, driving down the street and Mallory was negligent and suddenly stepped in front of his car. I mean, when you cross the street and you aren't in a cross walk, you don't just walk out into the street - you look both ways, or in this case ONE way as it was a one way street. So she obviously was not being careful, which does not necessarily absolve Mrs. Morua of all guilt, but it shows that it is possible that Mallory's negligence of going into the street caused the accident and Mr Morua, drunk or sober, had no way of avoiding her. In that case I don't believe he should be responsible because his BAC was incidental and would not have been responsible to cause the accident.
So of course if you read the articles below and the comments there are a lot of people talking about zero tolerance DUI laws where you can't drink anything before driving, breathalyzers required to start a car, all of the typical responses you might expect when a 'poor innocent girl' is run over by a mad, scathing drunk who should be taken out and shot for even considering getting behind the wheel of a car after consuming alcohol (/s). Then there are people who think the alcohol industry is out of control and the government needs to not allow there to be so many bars, clubs and venues that serve alcohol.
On the other hand, if he is responsible then I think he should do some time in jail. I guess if I were on the jury it would come down to witnesses, of which I am sure there were many.
I got yelled at a lot in the comments for insinuating that maybe it was possible Mallory was partly at fault for stepping out in front of a drunk driver and maybe it wouldn't have mattered whether he was drunk and so maybe we shouldn't send this guy to the execution chamber just yet..
What do you guys think?