Hit-Run Driver Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter in Crash That Killed Sisters

A driver who fled the scene after crashing his pickup truck into a car in Bay Terraces last year, killing two sisters in the other vehicle, pleaded guilty Tuesday to vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run charges.

Police say Tony Garcia, 55, crashed his Ford F-150 into a Honda Civic that was making a left turn from Paradise Valley Road onto Munda Road in the early morning hours of May 14, 2023.

Garcia is slated to be sentenced next month to 14 years and eight months in state prison for the 2:30 a.m. crash that killed Elizabeth Higuera Cano, 25, and Jazmin Higuera Cano, 23, according to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. The sisters died at a hospital, while the Civic’s driver and another passenger were injured.

Prosecutors allege the Civic’s driver was turning left on a green light with a green left arrow when Garcia’s truck ran a red light, traveled through the intersection and broadsided the Civic. Garcia then fled on foot, prosecutors said.

Garcia turned himself in “several hours” after the crash, according to San Diego police.

City News Service contributed to this article.