A second-degree murder charge has been filed against a motorist who is suspected of swallowing sleeping pills and then driving onto a freeway killing a National City man.
Kathleen Lucinda Sloan, 20, of Lakeside, has pleaded not guilty to the charge of killing Sergio Chan Mora, 54, whose car was hit head-on by Sloan’s vehicle on Interstate 8 mid-afternoon on Nov. 1.
She is suspected of taking an over the counter product in an apparent suicide attempt.
Sloan drove her Ford Explorer onto the shoulder in the wrong direction on Interstate 8 and abruptly pulled out in front of a van driven by Mora, who was killed east of Flinn Springs in East County.
Mora’s wife, two sons and a daughter live in National City.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Charles Ervin set her preliminary hearing for Jan. 12. Sloan is also charged with vehicular manslaughter while under the influence of a drug, evading police, and being under the influence of a drug with injury to others.
Her attorney, Kim Vegas, said the case is “way overcharged,” and did not understand why the District Attorney’s Office filed a murder charge. “My defense is that it isn’t murder,” said Vegas.
Vegas said toxicology reports have not been completed which is why the preliminary hearing was delayed.
She said her client did not drink alcohol, but may have taken some over-the-counter product. She said Sloan had no previous criminal record. Sloan suffered a broken ankle and other injuries in the crash.
Ervin set bail at $1 million and Sloan remains in the Las Colinas Women’s Detention Facility in Santee.
