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Repeat drunk driver gets 15 years to life for Orange crash that killed 19-year-old Starbucks worker

April 28, 2023

A repeat drunk driver who struck and killed a 19-year-old pedestrian in a crosswalk in Orange while the driver was out celebrating his birthday was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison.

Sitani Pinomi, 40, was convicted last year of second-degree murder, along with several other DUI-related charges, for the May 19, 2021 traffic death of Aden Alexander Uriostegui at the Tustin Street and Heim Avenue Intersection.

Uriostegui, an employee at a nearby Starbucks, was on his way home, walking within a crosswalk on a green light when Pinomi drove into him with his Ford F-250 pickup, sending the teen flying nearly 200 feet. Bystanders, as well as a registered nurse who was driving by, tried to help Uriostegui, but he was pronounced dead a short time after the collision.

During Friday’s sentencing hearing, family members spoke to Orange County Superior Court Judge Lewis Clapp through tears, describing the pain of losing Uriostegui and seeing his body at the scene of the collision, down the street from their home. The family did not attend the trial, with one of Uriostegui’s siblings telling the judge it would have been too painful.

“I never thought of you,” Uriostegui’s older brother told Pinomi. “I never bothered to learn your name. You are just a man who made a poor decision I have to live with for the rest of my life.”

Uriostegui’s parents and several of his siblings said they, too, are living with the pain of his death. Some of his family members said they have forgiven Pinomi, though they still asked the judge to sentence him to the maximum term in prison so his actions couldn’t impact another family.

Pinomi — who claimed during his trial that another vehicle struck Uriostegui — continued to deny being responsible for the traffic death, even as he apologized on Friday morning to Uriostegui’s emotional family members.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t kill your son,” Pinomi said. “I hope you forgive me. I didn’t deserve this. I didn’t kill your son.”

Deputy District Attorney Brian Orue criticized Pimoni for continually refusing to take responsibility for Uriostegui’s death, noting that the fatal collision was witnessed by a half-dozen other people and caught on security video.

The prosecutor played body-worn camera footage from officers who interviewed Pinomi at the scene of the crash, in which Pinomi admitted to having been out at a bar in a nightclub in Anaheim that night where he had five to seven mixed alcoholic drinks before driving back to his home in Orange. Pinomi admitted speeding, and according to investigators was driving with his headlights off. When he was tested hours after the fatal collision, Pinomi still had a blood-alcohol level of .10, above the legal limit for driving.

Asked by the officers if he felt the effects of the alcohol, Pinomi repeated “I’m (expletive) up” several times, at one point adding “Oh man, I drive crazy … If I wasn’t drinking I’m not going to drive crazy.”

“I didn’t know it was going to go down like this,” he told the officers.

Pinomi acknowledged to the officers that he had previously been arrested for DUIs. He previously pleaded guilty to a pair of DUI cases in Los Angeles County from 2006 and 2007 and was given a formal warning — known as a Watson Advisement — that if he continued to drive under the influence and struck and killed someone he could be charged with murder. That led prosecutors to charge him with second-degree murder for Uriostegui’s death, rather than a lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter.

“The real question is, when is enough, enough?” Orue said. “When will society be safe from Mr. Pinomi? And he is still denying killing Aden Uriostegui. He has not taken responsibility, not one iota.”

During the trial, Pinomi’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Madeline Berkley, argued that while Pinomi had made mistakes, his actions didn’t rise to the level of murder. Despite the earlier convictions and warning, the defense attorney told jurors that when Pinomi drove home that night he was not aware that drunk driving was potentially deadly.

During Friday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Clapp said he didn’t believe Pinomi was intentionally looking to hurt someone the night of the collision, but was instead out trying to have a good time and made a poor decision. But the judge also acknowledged the previous DUIs, and noted that Pinomi was on probation at the time of the collision and is also alleged to have assaulted someone while in county lockup following his arrest.

A GoFundMe page raised $14,133 for Uriostegui’s funeral.

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