Man sentenced for DUI manslaughter

A Huntington Beach man was sentenced March 18 to more than a year in prison for killing his passenger after drinking and driving.

Vicente Garcia Ramirez, 23, was sentenced to 16 months in state prison after pleading guilty to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving without a valid license.

Ramirez was driving in Garden Grove with 22-year-old Joyce Lopez at 2 a.m. Jan. 9 after drinking at a bar and a house party, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Ramirez had a blood-alcohol level of .08 and was speeding when he lost control of his Nissan Altima. The car went up the center divider on Magnolia Street and crashed into a tree.

Lopez was critically injured and transported to the hospital, where she died at 6:30 a.m.

— Britney Barnes