Drunk driver gets three-year prison sentence after her children were killed when she let them out on the Vista Freeway – NBC 7 San Diego

A woman who drove drunk on a Vista highway last June, stopped and allowed her two children to get out before being struck and killed by another car, was sentenced to more than three years in prison Tuesday.

Sandra Ortiz cried as she begged Judge Saba Sheibani for mercy so she could heal herself and care for her four surviving children.

“I want to apologize to my children,” Ortiz said. “I made a big mistake by driving drunk. I should never have done that. It was a stupid mistake. I love my children with all my heart.”

NBC 7's Dana Williams was in court Thursday after the Vista mother pleaded not guilty to all charges.

On June 18, 2023, Ortiz was driving on State Route 78 with her six children when luggage fell off the roof of her SUV. She stopped and two of her children, 10-year-old Alan Gerardo Aguilar and 16-year-old Amy Monserrat Beltran, got out to retrieve the bags.

They were immediately hit and killed by another car.

Ortiz had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of child endangerment and one count of driving under the influence.

Ortiz had a blood alcohol level of .14 two hours after the incident, authorities said. The family had only been in San Diego County for six months; before the incident, they lived in the SUV.

“It is clear that society has failed Sandra Ortiz in many ways,” prosecutor Marnie Layon said in court.

Lawyers for both sides agreed that Ortiz self-medicated with alcohol to numb the pain of her trauma, but prosecutors argued that her actions that day were a conscious decision and that no one was to blame but herself.

“A mistake is when someone wears socks that don't fit,” Layon said. “This is not a mistake. It's a crime. It's a crime for which she was simply found guilty.”

“Any parent who has ever walked out of a store with a small child by the hand and crossed a parking lot knows the feeling when your hand slips,” Layon said. “The immediate reaction, the spinning around to grab the child and grab any part of your body because you know how important it is to protect your child when they're anywhere where cars are driving. And the stern talk that follows: 'You always hold mommy's hand, always.' That's innate. That wasn't a store parking lot. That was the 78.”

Ortiz completed a seven-month inpatient rehabilitation program and was placed in a facility for addictions. When she asked Sheibani for parole, she said she had changed.

“It broke my heart yesterday when my daughter called me, my child called me and said, 'Mommy, I'm scared we're going to lose you,'” Ortiz said. “We lost two of my siblings and now we're going to lose you. We don't want that, Mommy.”

The judge said she had no doubt that what happened was never Ortiz's intention.

“This pain and grief that she has to endure from the loss of her children will be a life sentence for her. Every day she will think about what happened that day,” Sheibani told the court in her verdict.

But the seriousness of the case justifies a prison sentence, Sheibani said.

“She decided to drink and get in the car. In doing so, she not only put her children in danger, but essentially put the public at risk by driving while drunk,” Sheibani said.

Ortiz was led away in handcuffs and pleaded with her family in the courtroom to take care of her children.

The maximum sentence Ortiz faced was more than ten years in prison, with 332 days of her sentence credited.