After insanity ploy, deadly DUI driver gets 25 years
After a trial delayed by his pretending to mentally ill, Damodar Chandradas, 26, was sentenced to 25 years in state prison for the October 29, 2013 collision on Highway 121 that killed one and injured two others.
Last month, Chandradas pled guilty to all 16 charges filed against him, including vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. The San Francisco was on felony probation at the time of the accident.
Chandradas was driving on a suspended license in the evening hours near Sonoma Raceway. He was under the influence of alcohol, cocaine and marijuana when his Jaguar swerved into oncoming traffic and crashed head-on into another vehicle, injuring the driver Gustavo Mejia and his daughter Jazzlin, age five.
Sergei Beoglozan, the passenger in the Chandradas vehicle, died on the scene.
In the defendant’s vehicle, officers found cocaine, meth, marijuana and a loaded semi-automatic long- rifle with 53 live rounds of ammunition. Chandradas had multiple prior felony convictions for violence, weapons, and drugs, and had been convicted of driving on a suspended license on three prior occasions.
The District Attorney’s office said he feigned a mental illness before trial, so proceedings were suspended while two mental health professionals evaluated him. He later admitted he did so to avoid the pending trial date.
His maximum exposure was 28 years in state prison.
‘Jazzy’ Mejia, paralyzed from the waist down, continues to recover from the collision. Learn how to help the family at jazzlinmejia.com.
