Murder trial in 2020 crash that killed grandmother, granddaughter near Oxnard to begin
Nearly four years after the deaths of a Camarillo woman and her granddaughter in a head-on collision near Oxnard, the murder trial for driver Jacob Anthony Caliboso is set to start this week.
The 24-year-old Oxnard man has pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in their deaths after he allegedly drove under the influence and crossed the centerline of Pleasant Valley Road near Laguna Road.
Caliboso was at the wheel of an Acura sedan on June 22, 2020, during the crash with Elva Andrade, 55, of Camarillo, who was driving a Yamaha scooter. Her granddaughter Nevaeh Gomez, 7, of Oxnard, was a passenger. Andrade died at the scene, and Nevaeh died from her injuries the next day at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Prosecutors expect jury selection to start Tuesday and opening arguments later in the week, said Joey Buttitta, spokesman for the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
Caliboso was originally charged with two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter. He pleaded not guilty to both counts on June 24, 2020.
The District Attorney's Office announced the additional counts of second-degree murder on Feb. 23, 2021, and those charges remained after the two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter were dropped against Caliboso in May 2022, Buttitta said. He added the District Attorney’s Office isn't discussing the reasons for dropping the charges.
Caliboso's attorney Ron Bamieh criticized the DA's Office for keeping the more severe charges. He would have preferred only the original, gross vehicular manslaughter charges.
“They don’t want to give the jury a choice of a lesser charge,” Bamieh said Thursday.
“The district attorney’s position is incredibly harsh,” he added, referring to the second-degree murder charges.
Bamieh said the current charges don't account for Caliboso's age and the facts he has no DUI convictions and no criminal record.
Caliboso was 21 at the time of the crash, according to sheriff's office records.
Bamieh said the possible sentences for second-degree murder are 15 years to life for each count. That would mean a minimum of 30 years versus the total of 22 years for the two counts of vehicular manslaughter, he said.
Caliboso was not drinking before the collision, but did take excessive amounts of a muscle relaxant, which he never should have done, Bamieh said.
“Make no mistake. I would never say what my client did was justified or right,” Bamieh said.
But for Andrea Jimenez, Nevaeh’s mother and Andrade’s daughter, there's frustration over the delays in the case going to trial.
Jimenez, 27, who lives in Camarillo, said Friday she will attend virtually every day of the trial. Caliboso, she said, has shown no remorse at earlier hearings.
'Reliving it is just hard'
As she talked about her mother and daughter, Jimenez cried.
“Reliving it is just hard,” she said as her voice choked up.
Since their deaths, Jimenez has been helped by friends who raised $27,000 to help the single mother with funeral expenses and other costs.
“Everyone was very supportive, bringing me meals," she said.
Jimenez said Andrade and Nevaeh – a name Jimenez picked for her daughter because it’s “heaven” spelled backward – were best buddies who loved to do things together.
“Nevaeh had just learned how to swim. My mom had a pool,” Jimenez said.
She said that on the day of the collision, Andrade and Nevaeh had been at Hueneme Beach while Jimenez studied for a math final exam at Ventura College. After their deaths, Jimenez earned her associate’s degree in business, got her beauty license and now works as an aesthetician.
Mother, daughter and granddaughter liked to travel together, such as a trip to Jimenez’s cousin’s wedding in 2019 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
She added her daughter loved taking dance classes, including ballet, and making people laugh.
"She was a little goofball," Jimenez said.
She said she learned more about her daughter’s acts of kindness after her death, including one example that came from Nevaeh’s teacher at La Mariposa Elementary School in Camarillo.
Nevaeh just finished the first grade there before her death. She helped another girl in her class who didn’t speak English, Jimenez said.
“They would walk together, and Nevaeh would show her around," Jimenez said. "They were friends.”
Nevaeh’s school put up a plaque in her daughter’s memory in the school’s garden.
“They had a memorial at the school,” Jimenez said. “It was very nice of them.”
Caliboso is currently incarcerated at the Todd Road Jail in Santa Paula, according to Ventura County Sheriff's Office records. His bail is set at $500,000.
Dave Mason covers East County for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at dave.mason@vcstar.com or 805-437-0232.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Murder trial in 2020 fatal crash near Oxnard to begin
