Jurors deadlocked today in the retrial of a man deported from the U.S. multiple times, who was accused of driving drunk and causing a hit-and-run crash that seriously injured a 6-year-old boy in San Ysidro.
It's the second time in seven months that a mistrial has been declared in the case against Mexican citizen Constantino Banda.
A jury last September convicted the 39-year-old defendant of misdemeanor vandalism, battery and driving without a license, but was unable to reach verdicts on charges of felony hit-and-run and DUI.
A status conference is scheduled Friday to determine the next step in the case.
Defense attorney Juliana Humphrey maintained that Banda wasn't behind the wheel at the time of the collision that injured the child last spring. But Deputy District Attorney Christopher Chandler said Banda was driving when his truck blew through a stop sign at Camino de la Plaza and Dairy Mart Road and T-boned a Honda Accord carrying Lennox Lake and his parents as they returned home from a day at Disneyland.
Chandler said Banda, his brother and a man who worked for the defendant, Jorge Adame, had been at a Chula Vista seafood restaurant/bar watching a boxing match before the crash, which happened about 11:20 p.m. May 6.
Banda's estranged wife and her friend were also at the eatery, and the defendant flattened the tires on the friend's car and another car before leaving, Chandler said.
The defendant also grabbed the friend of his estranged wife, and a bystander who intervened got into a fistfight with Banda.
Adame drove away with Banda in the passenger seat, but Adame told police that Banda was driving when the accident occurred about 30 minutes later, according to Chandler.
When Border Patrol agents found Banda's truck parked on a street not far from the crash scene, he was in the driver's seat. The defendant failed a number of field sobriety tests and his blood-alcohol content was measured at more than .15 percent, the prosecutor said.
Investigators looked at Banda's body and found seat belt markings that indicated he had been driving the truck at the time of the collision, Chandler said.
Humphrey said police made up their mind quickly that Banda was the driver who plowed into the Lake family. Later, evidence was developed that showed Adame was driving the truck at the time of the accident, she said.
Humphrey said Adame -- who had been in the United States for 14 months -- got confused and first headed south before turning around near the border and driving north before getting into the accident with the Lake family.
Banda has been deported at least 15 times over the past 15 years, according to federal authorities.
Photo Credit: 10News
Source: CNS