KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
An Orange County man was sentenced to a year in jail in the fatal crash that killed Travis Marton, a Valencia High grad, on New year’s Day in 2015.
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Ronald Aviles, 58, of San Clemente, was sentenced Thursday a year in jail for striking Marton with the cab he was driving and then leaving the scene during a rainy night on a remote stretch of Pacific Coast Highway.
The jury found Oct. 25 that Aviles unlawfully failed to stop his vehicle and failed to render assistance to the injured victim after the 2015 collision. Marton was pronounced dead at the scene.
Aviles was facing a maximum of four years in state prison, but the judge instead sentenced Aviles to one year in county jail and three years of formal probation.
In court, Marton’s family gave emotional victim impact statements before the judge describing how Aviles deprived Marton of a dying wish — to give his organs to save another life.
Marton had graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz with a degree in bio engineering in June, just six month before the crash, according to family members.
“He loved science, his first day of work was the day after his birthday, Oct. 16 … His job was helping people who had received an organ transplant keep their bodies from rejecting the transplant,” said Ricky Marton, Travis’ mom, in court. “The manner in which he was killed, however, prevented and robbed him of giving his last gift to humanity, his organs.” She also said, “I am no longer the person I once was. On Jan. 1, you not only took my son, you took my joy of life.”
Newport Beach Police Department police officers initially investigated the scene, and found Marton’s body lying in the intersection.
Laguna Beach police officers Aviles driving in his taxi van in Laguna Beach, approximately 5 miles from where the victim’s body was found, and arrested the defendant.
At the time of the arrest, Aviles was driving the taxi with damage consistent with the collision, including a smashed windshield, dents on the hood, a dented bumper, and a missing driver-side mirror. Scattered debris at the collision site was consistent with damaged and missing vehicle parts from the defendant’s taxi van.
Aviles’ lawyer, Brian Gurwitz, said he planned to appeal the conviction on the grounds that the judge denied his client the chance to acknowledge a recording from Aviles in which the defendant states he thought he hit an animal. That was the premise of Aviles’ defense, according to Gurwitz.
Deputy District Attorney Stephen Cornwell prosecuted this case.
What a complete travesty of Justice! A FATAL hit and run, and this felon gets the opportunity to spend only ONE YEAR in County Jail? Who was this sentencing Judge?
Obviously he didn’t give much credence to the families Victim Impact Statement…..shaking my head!
If this was Florida, it would not be a surprise. The impaired driver who took my son’s life received a simple non criminal traffic citation
My heart breaks for Travis’ family. I know too well how true her statement was, saying that the joy was taken from her life. There are no words to adequately describe the senseless loss of a child…..and for the person responsible to not be held fully accountable adds additional pain & disbelief.
It is a tragedy by all accounts , the judge the sentence the morales’s attorney and the fact that the killer belittled her sons life with the statement of what was his defense
It comes down to this the idiotic voters in Ca have voted to lower kidnapping a child for sex trafficking to a low felony punishable by the same amount of jail as a drunk driver
Riportellam@yahoo.com
SERIOUSLY????!!!! One year??!!!! He left the scene and kills someone and gets one year???!!! I pray for the family of Ricky Marton and hope they find some kind of peace out of this ridiculous sentence!!
Only one year? This is a travesty of justice!
I hope Travis’ parents have some recourse to go after monies that this scum took away from the earning power of this amazing young man. A year ? Really and country jail? This is a terrible joke of justice. Who was this horrible judge? The man, who ran over our Santa Clarita teacher on his bike then ran away, got 26 years. Need the same judge for Travis’ case.
Shame on this horrible liberal judge, and shame on the defense attorney who plans to appeal the one year sentence. By only getting one year in jail he will only do a couple months, or time served; or because of the passage of Proposition 57, the citizens of Calif do not want non violent offenders serving time. From the sound of things, this person would qualify. So if you are outraged, think how you just recently voted?!