DRUG-ADDLED MOTORIST GETS PRISON IN FREEWAY FATALITY; WRONG-WAY DRIVER HANDED MAXIMUM SENTENCE.

Byline: City News Service

A methamphetamine-addicted, wrong-way driver was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for causing a head-on freeway crash that killed a 20-year-old Newhall man on his way to work.

The sentence was the maximum 35-year-old Alexito Manuva could have received in the death of motorist Frank Rodriguez for his conviction on a vehicular manslaughter charge.

Manuva, who had driven about 10 miles down the Foothill Freeway at 70 to 80 mph before the crash, was charged with murdering Rodriguez, but jurors found him guilty of the lesser charge.

The victim's mother, Francisca Rodriguez, said in court that the one thing she wanted above all was to keep Manuva behind bars.

Rodriguez's father and sisters also appeared for the proceeding.

After jurors in Pasadena Superior Court rejected the murder charge against Manuva on Nov. 12, Deputy District Attorney Patricia Doyle said the panel was wrong if it felt his drug use afforded him leniency.

The prosecutor said use of drugs should increase the severity of the crime.

Manuva's lawyer contended during the trial that her client was psychotic due to heavy use of methamphetamine. At the time of the crash, he was on the way to a court proceeding on a drug-related charge, according to trial testimony.

Manuva was driving westbound in the eastbound lanes of the freeway when his Honda Accord collided with Rodriguez's car in Glendale, near the Lowell Avenue exit.