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Electric vehicle boom could turn Salton Sea into America’s Lithium Valley

April 28, 2023

Crews are getting ready to dismantle a small geothermal plant that’s been operating for months a couple miles from the southeastern shore of the Salton Sea, at a site aptly known as Hell’s Kitchen.

A hardy, 30-person team from Australian-based Controlled Thermal Resources has been manning the plant in this corner of the Imperial Valley since December. Their task: to fine-tune plans for extracting lithium and other valuable minerals, along with geothermal power, from the boiling brine that flows 8,000 feet beneath one of the most seismically active areas in the country.

While exposure to harsh desert conditions and that 550-degree brine makes the equipment look as though it’s been operating for years rather than five months, the team isn’t dismantling the optimization plant’s tower and turbine and tanks because something went wrong. On the contrary, during one of the final tours of the plant, company CEO Rod Colwell explained they’ve worked out the kinks and boosted efficiency to the point that they’re ready to pivot to construction of what will likely be one of the first commercial-scale geothermal lithium extraction plants in the world.

The timing for such a project couldn’t be much better.

Lithium’s ability to quickly charge, recharge and transfer lots of energy has, over the past 30 years, made it the primary component in batteries that run everything from laptops to pacemakers to cell phones. Now, lithium is the material of choice for batteries to store solar and wind energy — and to power electric vehicles.

With California and other places moving to ban new gas-powered vehicles as soon as 2035 demand for lithium is expected to hit double current supplies by the end of this decade. That’s sparked a so-called “white gold rush,” as a nod to lithium’s silvery-white color. And, domestically, no place is getting more attention than a pocket of land near the Salton Sea, which sits above a deep reservoir of geothermal brine that’s believed to have the world’s highest concentration of lithium.

Controlled Thermal Sources’ Hell’s Kitchen test facility near the Salton Sea in Niland, CA, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Most of the world’s raw lithium now comes from Australia and South America, where it’s extracted via hard-rock mining or massive evaporation pools — both of which pose environmental problems. Typically, that material is then shipped to China or other far-away places to be made into lithium ion batteries, which are then sent to automaker factories.

With just 1% of lithium used in the U.S. currently sourced domestically from a single site in Nevada the U.S. government in 2021 declared lithium a “critical mineral,” meaning its extraction is important to national security. Funds in both the infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act were dedicated to boosting both domestic lithium production and battery manufacturing. And the federal government also is using tax incentives, aimed at bringing down the effective cost of EVs, to drive U.S. production of major vehicle components.

Rules that kicked in April 18 limited a $7,500 tax credit to vehicles assembled domestically with minerals from the U.S. or its trade allies — in other words, not China. While vehicles such as Chevy Blazers and some Tesla Model 3s fit the bill, per an updated list of qualifying EVs from the Department of Energy, vehicles from Nissan, BMW and other major automakers do not. That has those manufacturers scrambling to source local lithium so their vehicles can be priced competitively for American buyers.

To stay ahead of the demand curve, Colwell said Controlled Thermal Resources aims to start producing 25,000 tons of battery-grade lithium products a year by 2025. They then plan to ramp up capacity through 2027, eventually producing up to 300,000 tons of lithium annually, or enough to power tens of millions of EV batteries.

Supply chain delays have slowed some of that work, Colwell said, with lithium production originally slated to start next year. There also have been issues with alignment between local, state and federal regulators, though he said those are getting better. And he acknowledged no one has all the details worked out yet around, say, how their product will get to battery plants or how much it will eventually cost.

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” Colwell said. “We’re not pretending we’ve figured it all out because there’s no precedent for this anywhere globally.”

What he does know is that demand for lithium is so strong that, while Berkshire Hathaway and EnergySource also are pursuing extraction operations near the Salton Sea, Colwell said the dynamic has started to feel less competitive and more cooperative in recent months.

He believes businesses, regulators and community members are all starting to grasp the urgency of what needs to happen in this area over the next few years. As evidence, he cites Gov. Gavin Newsom visiting the site in March, while Department of Energy officials spent Monday and Tuesday with Colwell and other stakeholders during a closed-door meeting to discuss ways to keep projects like his on track.

“If we don’t, we’ll all miss the window,” he said, forcing automakers to keep turning to China to keep EV production lines rolling and carbon emissions coming down.

What lies beneath

Visitors to this other-wordly place near the tiny town of Niland can get a glimpse at what’s happening beneath the surface by visiting a series of mud pots just south of Controlled Thermal Resorce’s site. The cone-shaped mounds reach up to eight feet tall. Lean in and you can hear steam hissing and the occasional popping bubble. Climb to the top and you can see muddy water that smells of sulfur boiling up from deep underground.

Mud pots sit in front of EnergySource’s geothermal plant near the Salton Sea in Calipatria, CA, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Geothermal energy plants have operated in those conditions, near the Salton Sea, for 40 years. There are 11 such plants — 10 run by Berkshire Hathaway and one by EnergySource — that now use wells to bring the boiling brine to the surface, where it generates enough steam to turn clean-energy turbines that power millions of homes. And so far, Colwell said there are no signs those operations have reduced minerals, heat or pressure in the reservoir.

Until recently, geothermal plants have then sent all of the brine, including the liquified lithium, back down into the earth to help keep the geothermal reservoir stable and to avoid dumping anything above ground, as happens with such operations in some places. But now, teams from those two companies along with Controlled Thermal Resources, or CTR, are developing systems to first send the hot brine through a series of closed pipes and tanks that extract lithium and other minerals (more on that soon) before sending everything else back underground.

Just how much lithium is down there? For that answer, everyone is waiting on results of a study by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Riverside, which attempts to quantify and characterize the supply. A report is due out in June, according to Michael McKibben, a geology research professor from UCR who’s studied the Salton Sea for more than 50 years and worked on the report. But, broadly speaking, McKibben said results are in line with earlier predictions of a massive, lithium-rich geothermal reservoir.

“The problem in assessing everything is they’re still developing the extraction technology,” said McKibben, who’s himself a finalist on one of five grant-funded teams competing to nail down a process that gets the most lithium at the best price with little to no environmental harm.

From a chemical standpoint, Colwell said, the process to extract minerals from the reservoir’s stew really isn’t that complicated. He jokes that you could “just about go to Lowe’s” to get the needed equipment, with the whole process to extract brine, capture the steam, extract the minerals and send what’s left back to the reservoir complete in roughly 40 minutes.

“It’s how it’s assembled and arranged,” he said. “That is the art.”

Tapping the lithium stream

CTR got its first major vote of confidence in 2021, when General Motors announced a “multi-million dollar” investment into the company’s Salton Sea facility. That gave the auto giant first rights to any lithium produced at the site, as GM looks to expand and stabilize its place with five Chevy models and one Cadillac already on the federal tax credit list.

The well drilled for CTR’s optimization plant will become part of GM’s dedicated lithium production plant. Rather than use a test well, Colwell said they opted to develop a $12 million production-scale well that took 38 days to drill and is capable of extracting up to 12,000 tons of lithium a year. That way they can simply replace above-ground equipment from the optimization plant with a commercial-scale plant that will be under production soon.

And rather than try to re-engineer things to scale up, Colwell said they plan to simply replicate this first proven setup, allowing different automakers and battery manufacturers to plant their flags near their dedicated wells and plants.

Rod Colwell, CEO of Controlled Thermal Sources, at their Hell’s Kitchen test facility near the Salton Sea in Niland, CA, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Temperature gauge at Controlled Thermal Sources’ Hell’s Kitchen test facility near the Salton Sea in Niland, CA, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Controlled Thermal Sources’ Hell’s Kitchen test facility near the Salton Sea in Niland, CA, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Brine pipes at Controlled Thermal Sources’ Hell’s Kitchen test facility near the Salton Sea in Niland, CA, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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The company’s second announced partner is Stellantis, which makes Jeeps, Chryslers, Fiats and more. Stellantis committed to buy up to 25,000 tones of battery-grade lithium hydroxide per year, over a 10-year term, for use in its North American electrified vehicle production.

Statevolt, a startup that recently bought 135 acres in the area to build a massive battery manufacturing plant, also signed an agreement with CTR to source lithium. And Colwell said they’re in talks with two other major battery manufacturers he hopes to announce soon.

Eventually, he said CTR plans to drill about 60 wells. Half will be used to extract boiling brine, while the other half will be located as much as a mile away, to inject any unwanted minerals and remaining water back underground far enough out that the altered brine won’t interact with the material they’re extracting for years.

Ideally, Colwell said they’ll be able to send lithium still suspended in water via a pipeline straight to nearby battery manufacturers. Otherwise, he said they’d need to dehydrate the liquid-suspended lithium and build an $85 million packaging plant to put bags of processed lithium on trucks going down Interstate 10 or on nearby rail lines. It would then likely travel via ship to a refinery or battery plant, where it would have to be rehydrated before getting put to use.

So far, Colwell said the price for geothermal lithium sits solidly in between lithium from hard-rock mining, which is the priciest at $9,000 to $11,000 a ton, and lithium from evaporated ponds, which now goes for around $4,000 a ton.

“We’re $5,000 to $6,000 a ton,” he said. “But we’re working on that.”

Not just lithium

Demand for lithium is driving this work today. But roughly a fifth of the elements on a periodic table tacked to the wall of a portable lab at CTR’s site are circled in red, indicating those elements also are present in varying concentrations in the area’s geothermal brine, which is roughly 23% solids.

Emir Salas, lead chemist at Controlled Thermal Sources, shows off brine with metals extracted at their Hell’s Kitchen test facility near the Salton Sea in Niland, CA, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Brine in various stages of the extract process at Controlled Thermal Sources’ Hell’s Kitchen test facility near the Salton Sea in Niland, CA, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Some are obvious in jars of refined brine sitting on a lab counter, with a layer of rich blue manganese — present at five times the concentration of lithium and needed in steelmaking and other industries — settled near the bottom. There’s also zinc, which EnergySource’s plant already extracts from its nearby geothermal plant. Gold and silver are there, too. But, after lithium, the element Colwell said they’re most interested in is potassium.

Potassium also is a key ingredient in fertilizer, which is used in far greater quantities than batteries. Right now, Colwell explained most potassium comes from Canada, with Russian sources cut off since Putin invaded Ukraine. So Colwell said selling potassium is “low-hanging fruit” that isn’t even factored into their financials to date, though he estimates they’ll be able to produce 1 million tons of potassium for every 25,000 tons of lithium.

They also haven’t factored in silica, which is a created as a pesky byproduct of most mineral recovery efforts. The geothermal plants in the area today pay to have silica landfilled, Colwell said. But CTR already is making money by selling their silica waste to a nearby defense contractor, which is using it to make carbon-free cement.

“It’s when you get into some of this other stuff that it really starts to make economic sense,” Colwell said.

The only product aside from lithium that’s factored into CTR’s financial plans is geothermal energy, which is what brought his company here more than a decade ago.

Even after using clean geothermal energy to power their own plants and other operations expected to spring up nearby, CTR expects to have plenty of power leftover to sell to the market. They aim to start producing nearly 50 megawatts of renewable power by late 204. At full capacity, the Hell’s Kitchen site could hit 1,100 megawatts, or enough clean energy to power around 1 million homes.

The bigger picture

While CTR’s plans are big, the company is just one piece of a massive puzzle that local, state and federal leaders hope to put together over the next few years to transform the Imperial Valley.

Concept drawing of Controlled Thermal Resources’ lithium extraction/battery campus in the Hell’s Kitchen area of the Salton Sea in Niland, CA, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The intersection of Pound and Davis Roads is slated to be the new location for Controlled Thermal Resources’ lithium extraction/battery campus in the Hell’s Kitchen area of the Salton Sea in Niland, CA, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Federal leaders are anxious to see facilities that manufacture and recycle lithium-ion batteries also come to this area. That could reduce our dependence on places like China, bolster national security and ensure we can follow through on plans to clean up our transportation sectors.

But supporters say plans to build out Lithium Valley also could create up to 12,000 new jobs (with 1,400 at CTR alone), spark affordable housing construction and breathe new life into what’s long been the most impoverished county in California.

“If done correctly, this effort will be a once-in-a-generation opportunity with tremendous potential for transformative economic growth that could bring family-sustaining jobs and real economic opportunities to California’s most underserved residents.”

That’s how the final report of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Lithium Extraction in California, which was published in December, spells out the stakes. The report includes 15 recommendations for responsible development. Some, such as calls to streamline permitting and add tax incentives, center on bolstering these projects. Others, such as requiring health impact and water studies, are aimed at ensuring these projects don’t harm the area’s people and environment.

Issues with elevated rates of asthma, triggered by toxic dust from the polluted and drying sea, are a major concern for residents and for future employees of these companies, Colwell said. So they’re working on a plan to help mitigate dust at their site and to develop wetlands nearby, in an area once rich with migrating birds.

Standing on top of a nearby dormant volcano, with the drying sea on one side and steam pouring from rows of geothermal plants on the other, it’s easy to see how important it is to get this one right.

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VIDEO: Duck glows as it waddles in bioluminescent water

April 28, 2023

Photographer Patrick Coyne has filmed dolphins frolicking in water glowing with bioluminescence, a dog romping around in the electric blue waves and even did himself doing a cannonball to send a splash of the fluorescent water shooting into the sky.

The Torrance photographer documented something new in the Newport Harbor this week: A cute little duck with its webbed feet lighting up an electric blue color as it swam up to Coyne and his girlfriend in the dark of night.

A post shared by Patrick Coyne (@patrickc_la)

Red tide, which can be accompanied by bioluminescence at night, has been spotted along the Southern California coastline in recent weeks, but has been spotty to see, Coyne said. He spotted it in Oxnard a few days ago and waited until midnight in the Newport Harbor on Tuesday, April 25, to see the water glow.

The Newport Beach light show was the brightest Coyne said he’s seen so far this year. Coyne and a handful of other dedicated photographers have been chasing glowing waves since they first started showing up regularly in 2020.

Last year, he documented bioluminescence events at least 50 times from Malubu to San Clemente, a feat that takes patience and dedication as it sometimes doesn’t show up until the early morning hours.

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Sometimes, the sea stays pitch dark, and the outing is a bust. Other nights, the waves lighten and take on a glowing hue, giving hope there will be a performance put on by Mother Nature.

“Best advice I can give is to check beaches as often as you can and in areas that are super dark,” he said. “Light pollution from the city makes it a bit challenging to see bio if it’s not crazy bright.”

In Newport Harbor, the calmer the better. When it’s windy, it doesn’t seem to show as strong, he said.

During this week’s outing, Coyne and his girlfriend were hanging out on a dock waiting for the water to light up when they saw the duck swimming toward them.

“We started calling it over, joking to see if it would come over and it did,” Coyne said. “It hung out with us for a bit and seemed pretty comfortable being around us.”

When he saw the glowing feet, he knew he had to capture the duck to add to his collection of wildlife he’s documented in the bright blue waters.

“I grabbed my camera super fast because I noticed its little feet lighting up blue and bio and thought it would be cool to film,” he said. “I’ve filmed bio many times, but never a duck swimming in it, so I had to act fast.”

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Jason Isbell talks ‘painful’ HBO Max doc, acting for Martin Scorsese

April 28, 2023

Jason Isbell’s voice can be a strapping, mournful thing, muscular and dripping with vulnerability as he chronicles his life in song. And on this day, it’s still waking up.

“This time of year I drink my black coffee cold so I can get it down quicker,” the 44-year-old singer-songwriter said over the phone from his Nashville porch on Monday. “I’ve spent so many years working late at night that it makes it hard for me to get on with normal life. It’s tough, you know? But I think it’s tough no matter how you do it.”

Isbell’s family and acclaimed music career test his resolve while giving him motivation to stay sober and productive. He has won a quartet of Grammy Awards since 2018 — about a decade after getting kicked out of his former alt-country band, Drive-By Truckers, for drinking and drugging — and would seem to have nothing to prove in the music industry. At least from the outside.

In the HBO Max documentary “Music Box: Jason Isbell — Running with Our Eyes Closed,” which was released on April 7, we’re afforded a close-up on his life as he records the album “Reunions” with his band, the 400 Unit. His intimate musical and romantic partnership with wife Amanda Shires (herself an acclaimed solo artist), his love of his daughter Mercy Rose, his past divorce, and the shock of the pandemic are all there in vivid cross-section.

“If you’re a recording artist or entertainer with any kind of success, you don’t want to spend too much time looking back,” said Isbell, who was born in Green Hill, Ala., to a 17-year-old mother. “It’s a self-centered way of living. But one thing I was surprised by watching the (documentary) is that I’d forgotten how hard those old days were, growing up where I did and having addiction issues. It was nice to see but painful to watch, that all of this was real and really happened to me, even if it’s long in the rearview.”

Isbell will headline Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, May 3 and 4 with the 400 Unit, on tour for their new album “Weathervanes,” to be released June 9. The lead single “Death Wish” has already been covered by Jack White and featured on “American Idol.” Isbell’s melodies channel Americana, folk, country, rock and blues. His lyrics are cutting and urgent and full of visceral metaphors. On “Death Wish,” he sings:

“I wanted action, she wanted answers / Sunrise with the dealers and the dancers / It takes a whole lot of medicine to feel like a little kid.”

It’s not all grit, but Isbell works hard on every single song, he said. In the “Music Box” documentary, he can’t get away from songwriting, but that’s not always the case. Isbell will appear in Martin Scorsese’s new movie, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which stars Robert DeNiro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jesse Plemons, among others (there’s no current release date for the Apple+ production). He was cast alongside musicians White and Sturgill Simpson in the Oklahoma-based crime drama. And he won’t play music in it.

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“Everybody around me had an Oscar, or more, and I was just kind of asking them, ‘What do I do here?’ ” Isbell said of the filming experience. “Luckily they were kind enough and invested enough in the project that they didn’t just say, ‘Leave me the (heck) alone!’ … It was really hard. It took everything — all my ability as a creative thinker and also a large dose of letting go of any kind of self-awareness or self-consciousness. But I appreciated the opportunity to do it, just because it wasn’t easy. In your 40s, how often do you get to be terrified?”

It helped that, prior to production, Isbell asked Lyle Lovett for acting advice, given that Lovett had averaged roughly a movie or TV series per year since 1983. Lovett shared some wisdom that director Robert Altman gave him on the set of 1992’s “The Player,” which was the first of what would become four collaborations with Altman.

” ‘Don’t act; just go out there and be,’ ” Isbell said. “He said it was the best advice anyone’s ever given him.”

Whether or not Isbell’s Hollywood career takes off, he won something in the experience: During production downtime in his trailer, he wrote a bunch of new songs.

If you go

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. With Angel Olsen, May 3 and 4 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway in Morrison, Colorado. All ages. Tickets: $50-$100 via axs.com.

Orange County Register

How Young Kim and Michelle Steel helped in South Korean president’s US visit

April 28, 2023

Two brightly colored hanboks, reminiscent of springtime in Korea, stood out in a sea of glamorous gowns at the White House, where distinguished guests came together for a state dinner honoring South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee.

The hanboks — traditional Korean clothing — were worn by Orange County Reps. Young Kim and Michelle Steel, two of the first Korean women elected to Congress.

Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, and Charles Kim arrive for the State Dinner with President Joe Biden and the South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol at the White House, Wednesday, April 26, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Yoon’s visit was historic in more ways than one: It was the first state visit to the U.S. by a Korean president in over a decade in a year that marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War and the beginning of the alliance between the two countries.

The day following the state dinner, Yoon delivered a speech touting said alliance to a joint session of Congress — possible largely due to Kim and Steel’s efforts.

Back in February, when Kim was named chair of the Indo-Pacific Subcommittee, she and Rep. Michael McCaul, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chair, asked Speaker Kevin McCarthy to invite Yoon to address a joint session of Congress. Steel said she, too, implored McCarthy, who promised her it will happen.

Rep. Michelle Steel, R- Seal Beach (R) and Siobhan Steel (L) arrive for the White House state dinner for South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the White House on April 26, 2023 in Washington, DC. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are hosting South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee for a State Dinner. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

And when Kim stopped by South Korea earlier this month as part of a delegation visiting East Asia, she and McCaul hand-delivered to Yoon the official invitation for him to address the joint session, which he accepted, she said.

The two OC lawmakers were also part of the team that escorted Yoon to the podium for his address — at the request of McCarthy.

During his speech, Yoon recognized Kim and Steel, as well as Reps. Andy Kim of New Jersey and Marilyn Strickland of Washington. The legislators of Korean descent, Yoon said, “are a testament to the alliance spanning generations.”

“He paused long enough for us to stand up and be recognized,” Kim said. “There was thunderous cheering from our colleagues on the floor and the observers sitting in the gallery which was widely watched both here in the United States, South Korea and across the globe. It was really a pivotal moment.”

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Kim — who was born in Incheon, South Korea, where she spent part of her childhood before her family moved to Guam — said it’s difficult to find the right words to describe what Yoon’s visit means.

“Going back to almost five decades when I was a young girl running around that small island of Guam, I never imagined that I would be rubbing shoulders with members of Congress and members of the United States Senate as well as rubbing shoulders with the heads of state and especially with the president of my motherland,” she said. “Never imagined that this day will come.”

“It was the greatest moment,” Steel, R-Seal Beach, said. “I had never met him before until two nights ago. I really like his policy — he wants to rebuild (the relationship) between the U.S. and Korea. His speech was just amazing.”

A large Korean American community put their personal lives on hold to travel to Washington, Kim said, just to be in the same room with the South Korean president. Many of them joined a special reception hosted by McCarthy following the joint session of Congress — and they were in tears, Kim said.

“They were telling us how proud they were of being Korean American,” she said. “I just wish that my parents were still with me to witness these historic moments. This day was very special, not only to me and my family, but to the Korean community.”

Steel, who grew up in Japan, was encouraged to hear the Yoon’s commitment to a strong relationship between Japan, South Korea and the U.S. — especially to combat North Korean attacks.

“Korea is my motherland, and of course, I am a proud American citizen here, and I just love this country,” Steel said. “What could I ask for more? It was the greatest moment.”

And immediately after the state dinner on Wednesday, April 26, Kim went straight back to work in the Financial Services Committee — still dressed in her hanbok since she didn’t have time to change into “regular clothes,” she said.

The committee worked for 13.5 hours straight, she said.

“I only took time off to get to the state dinner, and I didn’t miss a vote either,” Kim said.

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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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