Driver Sought in Drunken Driving Fatality Surrenders

A 47-year-old man accused in a wrong-way drunken driving collision that killed a woman in Mission Viejo last May surrendered to authorities in New York today and faces extradition to Orange County on a second-degree murder charge, a sheriff's lieutenant said.

William Carroll of Mission Viejo was charged with murder instead of manslaughter because he has a prior drunken driving conviction from 2008, Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker said. Defendants are advised in DUI cases that they could be charged with murder if involved in a deadly collision involving drugs or alcohol.

Carroll surrendered to authorities in the Albany area, according to Orange County sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock. It's unclear when he will be returned to Orange County to face trial.

According to Walker, Carroll turned from westbound El Toro Road into the northbound lanes of Santa Margarita Parkway, where his Ford F-250 pickup truck collided with a Toyota Sienna minivan driven by 32-year-old Ana Martinez of Trabuco.

Martinez was pronounced dead at the scene of the May 7 collision, and Carroll was seriously injured and had to be hospitalized, Walker said.

-- City News Service