15 Year Sentence for Impaired Driver who Killed 6-Year-Old Citrus Heights Boy

Sacramento District Attorney Jan Scully announced today that Tresa Bales-Sterba to the maximum possible sentence of 15 years in state prison for vehicular gross vehicular manslaughter. 

On May 14, 2013, Bales-Sterba pled no contest to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, felony driving  under the influence of alcohol or drugs with injury, and all allegations of personally inflicting  great bodily injury and causing bodily injury.

On October 5, 2012, Bales-Sterba was driving near Mariposa and Greenback Lane in Citrus Heights when she sped through a red light causing a crash and critically two brothers who were on their way to Skycrest Elementary School where they were enrolled in first and third grades.    

One of the injured boys, 6-year-old Henry Perez-Rocha died from his injuries three months later. His brother, then 8-year-old Juan Perez-Rocha was also injured, but later released from the hospital. The brothers were walking to school with their mother when the crash occurred.

The community pulled together after the tragic accident holding fundraising events and creating a trust fund to help the two boys and their family.

This case was prosecuted by the DUI Vertical Prosecution Unit. Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.