Crime & Safety
State Supreme Court Won't Hear Case of Man Sentenced in Baldwin Park Traffic Fatality
Walter Williams, 37, a young counselor from Baldwin Park, was driving north on Francisquito Avenue when he was killed in a collision with a vehicle being chased by Baldwin Park Police.
By City News Service
The California Supreme Court denied a defense petition to review the case against a man convicted of second-degree murder and other charges stemming from a June 2010 crash that killed a youth counselor in Baldwin Park.
Luis Miguel Noriega was behind the wheel of a stolen Chevrolet Tahoe that smashed into Walter Williams' 1999 Chevrolet Lumina at Ramona Boulevard and Francisquito Avenue June 18, 2010.
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Williams, a 37-year-old counselor at a Baldwin Park youth facility, was thrown from the sedan as it exploded in flames.
Minutes before the crash, police tried to stop Noriega at Ramona Boulevard and Syracuse Avenue when they saw him driving the SUV, which had been reported stolen a day earlier. He led police on a pursuit of about two miles before the deadly collision.
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Noriega -- who was 28 at the time of the crash -- was convicted in June 2011 of second-degree murder, evading an officer causing death, leaving the scene of an accident, unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle and receiving stolen property. He was sentenced in September 2011 to 20 years to life in state prison.
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