The tragic incident took place on September 15 at around 12:30 at night. Karla Stephany Guillén Leyva, who was celebrating her 24th birthday that day, had just finished her workday at a McDonald’s in California and was heading home when she was brutally hit by a drunk driver.
According to the criteria of
The person responsible, identified as José Manuel Zambrano Cruz, 26 years old and originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, He was arrested but released shortly after posting $50,000 bail.
A life cut short at its best
Karla Stephany had left her home in Huixtla, Chiapas, at age 12, in 2012, to join her mother Yovana Guillén Leyva in the United States. Her mother had emigrated at the beginning of the century seeking work opportunities that she did not find in Mexico.
Karla’s life developed in California, where, At the age of 18, she got married and started a family with two young children, a six-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy.
The accident occurred while Karla was in her parked car. According to her mother, Yovana,
“The car was parked. She had gotten out of the car and was closing the door when the drunk hit her. That’s when he killed her.” At that moment, Karla had just left work and was unable to avoid the vehicle that hit her. Her mother was informed of the accident in the early hours of the morning, when a co-worker woke her up to give her the devastating news.
Impact on family and community
The crash not only affected Karla Stephany, but two other vehicles were seriously damaged. Despite the seriousness of the incident, Zambrano Cruz was released on bail and a GPS bracelet on the condition that he not leave California or the United States.
At the first hearing, a judge indicated that the investigation could take one to two years to complete, leaving Karla’s family with few answers and much frustration.
“What we are looking for is for justice to be done sooner, “A person who has done this cannot be free,” Yovana said during a telephone conversation with ‘El Universal’.
The uncertainty of not knowing when justice will be done has been devastating, not only for Yovana, but also for Karla’s children, who have been asking since the day of the accident: “Where is my mother?”
Yovana’s pain is palpable. “It’s sad, it’s heartbreaking to know that the children don’t have their mother. I don’t have my daughter. It’s sad,” she confesses.
Seeking Justice
A new hearing will be held in court on September 30.but the family is not sure whether Zambrano Cruz will remain free under the same conditions. Yovana expresses her frustration at the slowness of the judicial process and the reasons that have been given to her.
“They tell us that we have to wait, because the prisons in California are very full and that is why they are giving the people who do harm these legal benefits, so that they can be free and not pay for what they are doing, and that is super unfair,” says the woman.
Karla Stephany, who dreamed of regularizing her immigration status and settling permanently in the United States, had the desire to become a stylist and open her own beauty salon. On the day of her cremation, The family decided to commemorate his 24th birthday by remembering his goals and dreams that remained unfulfilled.
His mother cries out for justice. “What I ask for is justice. Justice for my daughter, so that this person is put back in jail and does not get out, because what he did was no small thing. He killed my daughter. He should not be walking free and doing the same thing. It is not right,” concludes Yovana, hoping that the authorities will act quickly.
FREDY MARTIN PEREZ
The Universal (Mexico) / GDA
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*This content was rewritten with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on information from El Universal (GDA), and was reviewed by a journalist and an editor.
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