EX-CON PLEADS TO TRAFFIC DEATH MAN FACES 10 YEARS IN DRUNK-DRIVING CRASH.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A Palmdale ex-convict faces 10 years in prison after he pleaded no contest Tuesday to driving drunk and causing a crash that killed a 10-year-old boy.

Juan Mendoza, 24, had a blood alcohol level of .13 percent and also showed indications of drug use when he was tested after the March 11 collision that killed Jayson Maddela of Palmdale.

``(Jason's mother) didn't feel 10 years was enough time, and she's right,'' Deputy District Attorney Kelly Cromer said. ``I feel the laws need to be toughened up for cases like these. I think legislators need to look at these crimes from the viewpoint of the victim and the victim's families rather than the viewpoint of the defendant.''

Mendoza entered his plea to a charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated after prosecutors agreed to dismiss an additional charge of driving under the influence with injury.

The plea came before the start of Mendoza's preliminary hearing at the Antelope Valley Courthouse.

``The reason he pled is because there were additional victims, people who had been injured in the collision, and nothing had been filed regarding them,'' Cromer said. ``I was going to file additional charges and allegations as to those people.''

Cromer said four people were injured.

The crash occurred when Mendoza's sport utility vehicle slammed head- on into Jayson's mother's Honda Accord, which was stopped in a left turn-lane on Avenue S at 30th Street East, deputies said.

The impact shoved the Honda backward into a pickup truck stopped behind it, fatally injuring Jayson in the Honda's back seat.

Before hitting the Honda, the GMC Suburban had driven into the left- turn lane to pass two other vehicles traveling in front of it, then clipped the back of a truck, deputies said.

``The vehicle was hit so hard, it was pushed back approximately 40 to 50 feet into the vehicle that was behind it,'' Cromer said.

Jayson's mother and brother and other family members were in court Tuesday, wearing pins with Jayson's picture on them, Cromer said.

The charge to which Mendoza pleaded will count as a strike, Cromer said. He was convicted in 1998 of assault with a deadly weapon and in 2004 of possessing less than an ounce of marijuana, Cromer said.