Dad of 7 was killed in hit-and-run on California freeway, cops say. Ex-deputy sentenced
A former Texas deputy was sentenced to prison after authorities said a father of seven was killed in a hit-and-run while filling up his truck’s gas tank on the shoulder of a California freeway, according to officials.
Gilberto Sotelo, 38, of Lake Elsinore, was putting gas in his Chevrolet Silverado on the shoulder of the 215 Freeway in Riverside after he ran out of fuel in the early morning hours of Aug. 7, the California Highway Patrol said in a news release, McClatchy News previously reported.
As he was filling his tank, the driver of a “Honda sport utility truck” struck both Sotelo and his truck before fleeing, troopers said. Sotelo was pronounced dead on scene.
The driver, identified as Giovanni Ceja, 31, who was a Bexar County, Texas, deputy, was on vacation in California and driving a relative’s car while under the influence of alcohol, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release, McClatchy News previously reported.
A week later, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office got a call from Riverside County deputies about a warrant for Ceja’s arrest while he was on the job in uniform, McClatchy News reported. He was dishonorably discharged and extradited to California to face the charges.
Ceja was convicted of second-degree murder after pleading guilty on Tuesday, Jan. 30, as part of a plea deal, a spokesperson for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said in an email to McClatchy News.
Ceja was given a 15 years to life prison sentence, the spokesperson said.
His attorney did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
Sotelo’s family remembered him as “a great man,” NBC Los Angeles reported.
“He was willing to do anything and everything for anybody,” Sotelo’s wife, Myra Basulto, told the outlet in August.
San Antonio is the county seat of Bexar County, and Riverside County is about 55 miles east of Los Angeles.
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