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Keyes woman convicted of prior fatal crash racks up second DUI
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A Keyes woman previously convicted for a fatal driving under the influence crash, has been found guilty again of drunk driving.

Vera Samantha Dominguez, 46, was convicted by a jury on Dec. 23 of felony driving under the influence of alcohol and felony driving with an alcohol content of .08 or greater.

 

Following the guilty verdict, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Thomas Zeff found true a prior conviction for felony gross negligence vehicular manslaughter with intoxication, a prior strike-conviction Dominguez earned in 2003 for killing William Grice of Modesto.

 

Dominguez was driving her Nissan Altima with her brother as the passenger around 9 p.m. Sept. 10, 2011. Her car spun off the road in Keyes and became stuck in a ditch. California Highway Patrol Officer Aaron Norseen investigated the incident and found that Dominguez had been operating the car under the influence of alcohol, according to the court records.

A breath test established Dominguez's alcohol-level to be .16 percent.

 

On the way to jail, Dominguez told the officer, on video, "I take one little turnoff that was wrong and get stuck in the ditch and I'm tooken (sic) to jail, huh?"

 

The case returns to court on Tueday to schedule a sentencing date. Dominguez faces a maximum of six years in state prison.