Street racer convicted in hit-and-run crash that killed California newspaper editor, 67

A street racer has been found guilty of manslaughter for a daytime, high-speed race with a drunk driver who crashed into and killed a veteran newspaper editor.

Ricardo Navarro Tolento, 29, was convicted by a jury Tuesday for his involvement in the 2020 death of 67-year-old Eugene Harbrecht, a veteran staffer for the Orange County Register, his former paper reported.

Tolento had raced his Infiniti sedan against Louie Robert Villa in July 2020 in what prosecutors previously likened to their “own ‘Fast and Furious’ on the roads of Santa Ana.”

Ricardo Tolento Navarro was convicted over a hit-and-run-crash in California that killed newspaper editor Eugene Harbrecht in 2020. Santa Ana Police

Villa — who was under the influence of alcohol at the time and had a prior DUI rap — ended up crashing his BMW 330i into Harbrecht’s 2011 Ford Ranger pickup truck after he “slingshotted” around Tolento, according to authorities.

Tolento fled the scene but called 911 minutes later to anonymously report the wreck.

During his trial, Tolento took to the stand to repeatedly deny racing Villa.

However, dashcam video showed the two drivers rapidly accelerating just as the traffic lights turned green.

“You heard every excuse under the sun,” Deputy District Attorney Brian Orue told jurors. “A man is dead and the inability to take any responsibility is mind-blowing.

“You put that video up, you press play and it is pretty obvious what is going on,” he added. “They turned Bristol into their own personal race track and a man paid the ultimate price.”

Harbrecht was an editor at the Orange County Register. Facebook/Eugene Harbrecht

Tolento’s attorney, Tom Nocella, laid full blame on the other driver, who is serving 15 years to life after being found guilty of second-degree murder, saying: “Mr Villa, we know, caused the accident.”

“He (Tolento) did not hit anyone, he did not race,” the defense attorney said. “He did call 911. He did make those efforts.”

However, the jury convicted Tolento on a handful of charges, including gross vehicular manslaughter and hit and run with death. He is scheduled to be sentenced in April.

Villa had been warned during an earlier DUI sentencing that he would be charged with murder if he struck again.

Tolento was racing Louie Robert Villa in the streets of Santa Ana when Villa struck Harbrecht’s truck. Santa Ana Police

Tolento fled the scene of the crash. NBC 4 Los Angeles

Orue had said during Villa’s 2022 trial that he was well aware the dangers of racing drunk when he killed Harbrecht.

“Drinking alcohol, getting behind the wheel of a car, deciding to race with another car, going way too fast and doing his own ‘Fast and Furious’ on the roads of Santa Ana … are you surprised when you put all those things together that someone was killed?” the prosecutor had told Villa’s trial.

Harbrecht, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was a veteran newspaper editor who had worked with the Register and the Southern California News Group since 1984.

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