Mother’s Day two years ago ended in tragedy for the Foderingham family. It was on that day that a young mother, Jessica Foderingham, 29, and her unborn baby girl were struck and killed by a drunk driver.
ABC 10 News in San Diego reports that the trial of Andrew Melonis, 46, the driver who is allegedly responsible in the deadly DUI crash, began on Wednesday, July 3rd.
On May 14, 2017, Jessica and Christopher Foderingham were traveling with his wife’s two young sons to travel to the home of Jessica’s grandmother in Ramona. The couple took two separate vehicles. Jessica set out in her Dodge Dart while Christopher and the boys went in his Hyundai.
Foderingham, who is on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, told the jury that he heard a loud bang behind him and looked in the rearview mirror to see a dark SUV swerve onto the sidewalk and his wife’s airborne vehicle strike a tree and bounce off into the lanes of traffic.
Foderingham said was able to extract her from the wreckage after smashing a mirror and cutting off her seatbelt until emergency crews arrived. He did not get a good look at the driver of the SUV through the vehicle’s tinted windows but was able to determine that the driver was Caucasian.
Jessica Foderingham died at an area hospital a short time later.
According to the Deputy District Attorney, Laura Evans, the defendant, Andrew Melonis, 46, had been drinking all day, consuming at least seven drinks at a local bar before he got behind the wheel of his GMC Yukon.
Ignoring the advice of a bartender to take a Lyft rather than driving, Melonis set out, crashing his SUV into several utility poles and a tree before he crashed into the young mother’s car.
Prosecutors say that Melonis left the scene of the crash to a nearby hotel. Hotel staff called a Lyft driver for him. When asked where he wished to go, Melonis instructed the Lyft driver to take him anywhere he could get a drink.
Sheriff’s deputies located Melonis at a bar on Main Street and arrested him. His blood alcohol level at the time of his arrest was 0.20 – more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.
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