PUSD Teen Pleads Guilty to Vehicular Manslaughter

The teenager charged in the May 28 death of a Poway Unified School District teenager pleaded guilty Monday to gross vehicular manslaughter and was immediately sentenced to probation.

The teenager, whose name is not public because she is a minor, was charged in the death of Rancho Bernardo High School junior BreAnna Erickson in the Juvenile Court of Judge Carlos Armour.

Armour ordered the teen to complete 100 hours of community service in the form of public speaking engagements.

The 17-year-old, also a junior at RBHS, will have her driver's license revoked for the next two years and must complete a 12-hour juvenile driving class, said Deputy District Attorney Daniel Shim.

If successful on probation, the defendant can withdraw her guilty plea and plead guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, Shim said.

Erickson's parents said the defendant is like a daughter to them and hoped she wouldn't be charged.

BreAnna was seated in the middle of the back seat, wearing a lap belt, when the defendant took a curve on Sabre Springs Parkway too fast and the car collided with a rental box truck, according to prosecutors.

Her speed was estimated to have been twice the posted 40 mph limit. BreAnna died at the scene. Several of her injured friends needed to be cut from the mangled vehicle.

The defendant is slowly recovering physically, and while she is back in school, she is not at Rancho Bernardo High, said defense attorney Ward Clay.

Three teenage boys were also treated at hospitals for broken bones and other serious injuries suffered in the crash. The occupants of the rental truck were not seriously hurt.

The defendant had been licensed to drive for about two months and had a provisional license, a designation that prohibited her from driving with passengers younger than 20 unless also accompanied by a licensed motorist 25 or older, or a driving instructor.

In Poway, of the 55 injury-related car crashes reported in the first six months of this year, 13 involved drivers under the age of 20, said senior crime analyst Jeffrey Vandersip of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.