WRONG-WAY DRIVER SENTENCED MAN GETS 16 YEARS IN DEATH OF THREE WOMEN.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- An ex-convict accused of being a wrong-way drunk driver and killing three nail-salon workers in August 2005 when his car slammed head-on into their car has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

George Earl Walker, 45, was sentenced after pleading no contest to two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and one count of driving under the influence causing great bodily injury.

``I talked to the victims' families and considered how they were feeling about everything, and I talked with my supervisor. We thought this was a fair offer at this stage of the proceedings,'' Deputy District Attorney Susan Choi said.

Walker, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 1986 for a conviction of attempted voluntary manslaughter, must serve 80 percent of the sentence, Choi said.

Walker on Tuesday admitted the 1986 conviction as a prior strike and pleaded to the three counts as strikes, under the state's ``three strikes, you're out'' law, Choi said. At the hospital after the crash, Walker said all he remembered was going to Schooner's after 8 p.m., Choi said.

Prosecutors said Walker's 2001 Ford Mustang had been speeding south in the northbound lanes of the Antelope Valley Freeway for at least 4 1/2 miles and barely missing other vehicles before slamming into the women's Honda Civic.

His blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.15 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Walker had no prior drunk-driving convictions, according to his defense attorney.

In the Civic, Vui La, 61, of Glendale and Thanh Le, 56, of Long Beach, were both dead at the crash scene, and Mydung Nguyen, 47, of Bakersfield was flown by helicopter to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, where she died.

All three women had worked together at a Lancaster nail salon before the crash, which happened Aug. 14, 2005 about a half mile north of Avenue N. California Highway Patrol records show the first call about the wrong-way vehicle came in at 1:48 a.m., about six minutes before the fatal crash.

Prosecutors said one witness reported that Walker's Mustang had entered the Antelope Valley Freeway at Avenue I.

Minutes later, another motorist reported narrowly avoiding a head-on crash with the Mustang traveling the wrong way at high speed south of Avenue K. At almost the same time, a CHP officer came upon the collision south of Avenue M.

Prosecutors said that at least 10 motorists saw Walker driving the wrong way before the collision and had to take evasive action to avoid hitting him.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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