Windsor man sentenced for deadly 2018 DUI crash

A drunken driver who swerved into oncoming traffic and killed another driver in a 2018 head-on crash near Windsor has been sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison.

Josimar Ortiz-Ortiz, 29, of Windsor was sentenced Monday for the death of 60-year-old Jose Beltran.

A Sonoma County jury last month found Ortiz-Ortiz guilty of second-degree murder for causing the crash. It was his second conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said Ortiz-Ortiz drank about eight beers on his way home from work on Oct. 30, 2018. By the time he was heading south on Old Redwood Highway toward Windsor, his blood alcohol content was .23, nearly three times the legal limit, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Ortiz-Ortiz, who was driving a Volkswagen Beetle, “wove in his lane and crossed the double yellow lines twice before crashing into Mr. Beltran, who was driving north to Healdsburg,” the office said in a news release. “The crash was so violent that both cars spun out and landed in a ditch about 230 feet apart.”

Beltran became trapped in his car after it hit a pole on the driver’s side, prosecutors said. He was extricated by firefighters and died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital, according to the release.

“Once again, another tragic and senseless loss of life at the hands of an impaired driver,” District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in the release. “There is no excuse for driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances."

Ortiz was previously convicted of a DUI in 2015 and attended the mandated drunken-driving program.

You can reach Staff Writer Matt Pera at matthew.pera@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Matt__Pera.