A repeat drunk driver who admitted to an alcohol-fueled crash in Irvine that killed a 44-year-old woman and injured her husband and the couple’s two teenage children was sentenced on Monday, April 8, to 15 years to life behind bars.
Kamal Akwette Attoh, now 42, accepted a plea deal earlier this year requiring he admit to second-degree murder for the collision that killed Jeongmi Choi as she walked home with her family from an Irvine park around 8 p.m. on May 16, 2018.
Attoh drove his 2012 BMW X5 off of the roadway, slammed into the family members as they walked along Ridgeline Drive near Turtle Rock Drive and then careened down an embankment and crashed into a tree, a prosecutor has said.
Choi’s husband suffered a ruptured spleen and was taken to a hospital in critical condition. The couple’s then-15-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son suffered lesser injuries but were also hospitalized.
According to previous testimony, Attoh told officers he was driving home from his girlfriend’s house. He initially claimed to have had four beers and a Xanax, police testified, but later said he had been drinking vodka and martinis.
Attoh’s attorney previously indicated that his client took the plea deal because he wanted to accept responsibility for his actions and didn’t want to put Choi’s family through a trial.
Attoh had two previous DUI convictions, related to a November 2000 arrest in Orange County and a March 2002 arrest in Ventura County. As a result, he was charged in the Irvine case with second-degree murder rather than a lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter.
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