Santa Paula firefighters/EMTs were dispatched to the scene and treated the victims until they were transported to Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, where McDonald-Gwaltney was declared dead shortly after arrival.Casas, a California Department of Transportation maintenance worker, was taken into custody and booked on suspicion of drunk driving and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. Casas was cited twice in 2000 for speeding. He was released Friday on $50,000 bail.McMillan is in fair condition at Ventura County Medical Center where he underwent surgery on Friday, what was supposed to be his wedding day.McMillan and finance Shante Scott, 18, had invited 150 guests to the ceremony to be held at the Church of Angels Chapel located on North 6th Street; instead, on Friday chapel owner Pauline Roll had to tell those guests that had not been notified that the ceremony had been canceled under tragic circumstances.
Oxnard woman dies on way to son’s wedding rehearsal, DUI suspected
August 01, 2001
Santa Paula News
An Oxnard woman who stopped on Highway 126 Thursday to pick up her son whose car had broken down on the way to his wedding rehearsal in Santa Paula was killed and the son severely injured when they were struck by a drunk driver.
An Oxnard woman who stopped on Highway 126 Thursday to pick up her son whose car had broken down on the way to his wedding rehearsal in Santa Paula was killed and the son severely injured when they were struck by a drunk driver.The July 26 accident occurred at about 6:15 p.m. after Robin McDonald-Gwaltney, 46, had left the rehearsal at Church of the Angels Chapel in Santa Paula to pick up her stranded son, 20-year-old Jason McMillan, waiting by his car with a friend, Vince Alonzo, 23, on the shoulder of eastbound Highway 126 near Briggs Road.McDonald-Gwaltney was transferring tuxedos from her son’s Mustang into the trunk of her BMW when a pickup truck driven by Sergio Casas, 36 of Fillmore, drifted onto the shoulder and crashed into her.The BMW lunged forward, pinning McMillan between his mother’s car and his Mustang, fracturing his pelvis and crushing his leg.Two passersby who stopped at the scene were Romeo and Christine Alvarez, both off-duty Port Hueneme police officers, on the way to the Santa Paula home of Romeo’s grandmother Norma Lopez, who was going to babysit their child. Christine Alvarez witnessed the accident and pointed out the suspect to her husband when they turned around and came back to the scene; Romeo Alvarez detained Casas until CHP officers arrived on scene.
