Drunk Driver Who Struck Mother and Child Outside Ukiah Fair Sentenced to Nearly Eight Years in State Prison

The following is a press release issued by the Mendocino County District Attorney:

In August of 2022, a young mother and her one-year-old child in a stroller, followed by other family members, had left the fair and were crossing North State Street in Ukiah on their way home.

Unbeknownst to the group until it was too late, a drunk driver was speeding to get to a party and bearing down on them from the north.

Realizing she did not have time to get out of the way to avoid the speeding vehicle, the mother pushed the stroller with her daughter towards the west curb at the last moment before the mother was hit and thrown through the air by the force of the collision many yards to the south down State Street. The child luckily fell out of the stroller before the stroller was dragged down the street under the car.

The child miraculously received only minor physical injuries, while her mother unfortunately received life-threatening injuries that required immediate stabilizing emergency medical care locally before being transferred to U.C. Davis Medical Center for surgeries and highly intensive care. The mother has since been able to return to Ukiah but is facing long-term medical care and rehabilitation needs.

The drunk driver – defendant German Dominguez Galindo, age 32, of Ukiah – was sentenced Friday morning to 96 months in state prison for a crime – driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs — that all motor vehicle drivers should know is behavior inherently dangerous to human life.

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For reasons required by the California Rules of Court, the state prison sentence as imposed ended up being just one year less than the maximum sentence allowed by law for this crime and combination of enhancements.

The charge and enhancements that formed the basis for the state prison sentence were that the defendant (1) drove a motor vehicle in August 2022 with a blood alcohol of .08 or greater causing bodily injury to another; (2) that great bodily injury was inflicted on the first victim causing her to become comatose due to brain injury; (3) that the driving under the influence caused bodily injury to a second victim; and (4) that the defendant’s blood alcohol was .15 or greater.

The law enforcement agencies that gathered the evidence and interviewed witnesses to the crime — evidence that would have been used at trial — were the Ukiah Police Department, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, and the Mendocino County Adult Probation Department.

The California Department of Justice crime laboratory also provided scientific support by determining that the defendant’s blood alcohol at the time of the collision was .22, and that the bindle found in the defendant’s pant pocket contained cocaine.

The attorney who handled the prosecution of the defendant was District Attorney David Eyster.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Keith Faulder presided over Friday’s sentencing hearing during which the husband and father of the two victims gave a compelling and tearful victim impact statement, while the two victims and other family members listened and watched from the gallery.

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