An Orange County woman has pleaded guilty to murder after fatally running over a pregnant woman whose child was subsequently born via emergency C-section.
Prosecutors say Courtney Fritz Pandolfi, 44, of Garden Grove, struck Yesenia Aguilar, 23, while she was walking in Anaheim with her husband, James Alvarez, around 7:30 p.m. on August 11, 2020.
Both he and the couple's daughter, Adalyn Rose, were in the courtroom Tuesday when Pandolfi pleaded guilty to murder, felony driving under the influence of drugs and misdemeanor driving with a suspended license. He also pleaded guilty to three additional misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of drugs in November 2019.
She is due to be sentenced on April 12 and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
“This is a woman who had a habit of driving high,” the Orange County District said. Lawyer. Todd Spitzer said in a sentence. “They warned him again and again about the dangers of his actions. “She knew it was wrong, but she decided that being high was more important than the life of a young woman who was just weeks away from becoming a mother for the first time.”
Pandolfi was previously convicted of driving under the influence of drugs in 2008, 2015 and 2016, authorities said.
Frederick Fascenelli, Pandolfi's attorney, said his client was moved by Alvarez's empathy. Fascenelli said Alvarez spoke in court Tuesday and thanked the defendant “for taking responsibility for her conduct” by pleading guilty.
“My client accomplished today what he wanted to do, which was to spare the family the additional pain and anguish of a trial,” Fascenelli said. “She recognizes that it was a tragic situation that she created.”
Pandolfi, who Spitzer said was under the influence of cocaine and methamphetamine, was driving a Jeep when he jumped the curb and crashed into a metal newspaper rack before continuing and striking Aguilar, who was on the sidewalk.
According to Spitzer, he did not brake or take evasive maneuvers. The Jeep stopped only after it became disabled, by which time she had traveled 347 feet down the sidewalk.
Adalyn was born by emergency cesarean section the day her mother died.
“Yesenia's memory will live on through her beautiful little girl,” Spitzer said. “But that little girl is growing up not being able to hug her mother or hear her voice because a stranger decided to make the selfish decision to get behind the wheel while he was high.”
