A Ventura County man was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison on Tuesday for driving into a group of bicyclists, killing a 16-year-old.
Samuel Matthew Rocha, 33, went on a violent tear in Ventura County on April 19, 2021. According to prosecutors, he battered a man and woman in a laundromat before fleeing, hitting an employee with his car.
Minutes later, Rocha was behind the wheel near the intersection of Pleasant Valley and Ventura roads in Port Hueneme when he plowed his gold Lexus into a group of teenagers on bicycles, striking five, killing one, before fleeing again. A witness followed him and tracked him to his mother’s nearby apartment complex, where a Port Hueneme police officer arrested him.
Rocha pleaded guilty in August to second-degree murder for the death of 16-year-old Pedro Valdez. A jury had convicted him in April of four counts of assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of battery. The jury deadlocked on murder and attempted murder charges.
His sentencing included 15 years to life for second-degree murder plus an additional 12 years for the assault and battery charges, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said.
“A tragic loss of life occurred because of Mr. Rocha’s actions,” Richard Simon, a senior deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, said in a statement. “While his acceptance of responsibility is an important step, it cannot undo the devastating consequences of his actions. Pedro Valdez is missed by everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.”
During Rocha’s trial this spring, his public defenders argued that he did not see the bicyclists, that he had a long and well-documented history of mental illness with delusions and hallucinations, and that he was unmedicated at the time of the crash, the Ventura County Star reported.
Valdez’s mother, Christina Garcia, told the judge at the sentencing hearing that her love for her son “will continue to exist for as long as my heart will beat” and that his siblings remained devastated by his death, the Star reported.
One of the riders injured in the crash told the judge he was in critical condition for three months, confined to a bed for six additional months and still has pain.
Oxnard Fixie Crew, the youth-focused fixed-gear bicycle club that Valdez started in 2019, is still active.
The anniversary of his death remains painful, read a post on the group’s Instagram last year that was signed, “Love, Mom.”
“Let’s remember him with smiles, happy stories and the love he gave us,” the post read. “He truly loved life and lived it to the fullest — that’s how we want to honor him.”
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