An attorney from California has been convicted of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the death of a big rig driver on the 22 Freeway in Orange County more than six years ago, officials announced on Tuesday.
Lotfullah Sohaib Latif, 33, of Irvine, abandoned his blacked-out disabled Honda after crashing into a guardrail near Valley View Avenue and left it facing the wrong way, resulting in the tragic June 9, 2019, crash, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office stated.
A few minutes after the crash, dispatchers received calls about a semi-truck colliding with the Honda and bursting into flames. The driver of the semi-truck, 58-year-old Carlos Alberto Lara, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Latif initially denied drinking or having been involved in a collision when he was contacted by California Highway Patrol officers on the right shoulder of the freeway.
“Officers noticed Latif’s license plate near a broken guardrail, his right passenger door on the shoulder and alcohol on his breath,” the DA’s Office said. His car’s Event Data Recorder also recorded the Honda going 89 MPH five seconds prior to crashing into the guardrail.
“Drunk driving is a crime that is 100 percent preventable, and countless innocent lives would be saved if a night of drinking never included getting behind the wheel of a deadly weapon and driving,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said. “If this defendant had made the right decision, Mr. Lara would have been able to go home safely to his family that night instead of being killed by a stranger in a completely preventable crash.”
Latif was convicted Monday of one felony count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, one felony count of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, one felony count of driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content of .08% or more causing injury, and three felony enhancements of inflicting great bodily injury.
He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 9, 2026, and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
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