PRISON LOOMS IN A.V. CRASH VENTURA MAN PLEADS NO CONTEST IN DEATH OF CANYON COUNTRY MAN.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A Ventura man who tried to stab himself to death after fleeing a four-vehicle traffic collision that killed a Canyon Country man faces four years in prison after he pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter.

Robert K. Drescher, 27, was found unconscious about two miles away from and some six hours after the Jan. 6, 2004, Pearblossom Highway crash that killed Ramiro Ramirez, 50, and also injured Drescher's girlfriend.

Drescher pleaded no contest Wednesday to vehicular manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol and felony hit and run after prosecutors agreed to dismiss additional charges.

Drescher, who was out on bond, was scheduled to be sentenced March 16.

Drescher's blood-alcohol level was .02 percent after he was found, but a prosecution criminalist estimated that it was .11 percent at the time of the incident, above the legal limit of .08 percent, Deputy District Attorney Joseph Payne said.

However, the defense contended that Drescher suffered from hypothermia from cold temperatures in the hills where he was found and that his condition slowed the rate at which his blood-alcohol level decreased, meaning he wasn't as intoxicated as the prosecution expert calculated.

``The defense theory was he was not burning off alcohol at the same rate as someone who wasn't suffering from hypothermia. The blood-alcohol level may not have been as high as we believed it was,'' Payne said. ``It would have been an issue for the jury to decide, but the disposition was in the range of acceptable sentences for someone charged with this type of offense and considering his lack of a prior criminal record.''

Following the collision, Drescher was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital with knife wounds to his throat, chest, arms and wrists.

Drescher was driving south in a 1999 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck that drifted over the double yellow line and collided with Ramirez's 1990 Oldsmobile sedan, officials said.

The first collision spun the Oldsmobile into another lane, where it was hit on its right side by a 1998 Nissan Frontier pickup truck driven by Samual Childree, 37, of Lancaster.

Ramirez was killed and his body pinned in the wreckage, CHP officers said.

During the first collision, Drescher's pickup truck rolled onto its right side and spun counterclockwise into the next lane, where it was hit by a 1989 Peterbilt tractor-trailer rig hauling 25 tons of sand. That collision knocked the Toyota pickup truck onto its top.

Drescher climbed out of the Toyota and pulled out his girlfriend, Ailish Tormey, 24, of Ventura. After finding Ramirez dead, Drescher checked on his girlfriend and then borrowed a knife from someone who had stopped to help, officers said. They said he fled through a drainage ditch along the road shoulder.

CHP officers searched for Drescher with help from a CHP helicopter and from Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department search dogs and their handlers.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com