May 15, 2003
Drunken go-cart driver pleads guilty

By CATHY REDFERN
Sentinel STAFF WRITERWATSONVILLE — The man who seriously injured a 4-year-old when he crashed a go-cart while driving drunk pleaded guilty to felony charges Wednesday in a Santa Cruz courtroom.

Enrique Zamora Sanchez, 36, a Watsonville farmworker, faces up to 12 years in prison for the New Year’s Day wreck.

Sanchez, who has prior alcohol and drug convictions, will be sentenced June 27 for driving under the influence and endangering a child.

His attorney said she will argue for probation; the prosecutor plans to seek the maximum sentence.

The prosecution says Sanchez had a blood-alcohol level more than three times the limit of .08 when he gave a neighbor child a ride on a motorized go-cart near a San Andreas Road housing complex where he lived.

Neighbors testified he had given his young children and others rides on the go-cart all day before he slammed into a parked truck that evening. His daughter also was on the cart but not seriously injured.

The neighbor child, however, suffered a collapsed lung and broken ribs. He spent more than a month in intensive care at Children’s Hospital in Oakland.

The boy, nicknamed "Junior," is home, but still needs medical care.

Sanchez has three prior convictions for driving under the influence, all with blood-alcohol levels of more than 2.0, prosecutor Paul Marigonda said.

He was in a diversion program for a drug charge when the accident occurred, Marigonda added.

"He was even warned by the boy’s mother (not to give her son a ride), and he did it anyway," Marigonda said. "With his record and the evidence, this is a lengthy prison case, period."

Marigonda said he did not believe that Sanchez’s drunken driving convictions ever led to mandated alcohol counseling. His most recent conviction was in 1995, and he was arrested for public drunkenness last year, he said.

Sanchez’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Marta Cadloni, said her client is remorseful.

She said the injured boy’s young mother has said she would rather have Sanchez’s help than see him in prison, and that Sanchez is willing to help. He is the father of four young children, she said.

"This was just an unfortunate accident," Cadloni said. "(Junior) is a darling little boy and my client never meant to hurt anyone. He wants to take responsibility for what happened.

"I don’t think destroying Mr. (Sanchez’s) family is a solution to anything."

Cadloni said several neighbors wrote letters supporting Sanchez, who has been in County Jail since his Jan. 3 arrest.

Marigonda was unswayed.

"I went to the hospital, and it’s just not something I’m ever going to forget," he said.

Contact Cathy Redfern at credfern@santa-cruz.com.