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Family outraged after suspect set for early release
A family is left shattered after learning the driver who killed their son is set to be released after only serving a fraction of her prison time.
LOS ANGELES - Benjamin Montalvo’s room is filled with memories, reminders of a 21-year-old life cut short by a distracted driver.
What they're saying:
"He was struck and killed by an impaired and texting driver who, after she struck him, continued to text," said Kellie Montalvo, Benjamin's mom.
The driver, Neomi Renee Velado, kept texting and fled the scene. She has a prior history of hit-and-run crashes.
"Fourth hit-and-run, the other two were parked cars, then she hit a young lady on her way home from school at a local community college," Montalvo explained.
On June 11, 2020, Benjamin became the 4th victim of Velado’s hit-and-run, but this time it would be fatal.
"The rest of our lives its the same thing… suffering the pain. I don’t think it’s right. It’s not right," said his dad, Eddie Montalvo.
Velado later turned herself in. But as soon as she posted bail, the Montalvo’s say she headed to Las Vegas to celebrate with her boyfriend.
"There is a huge picture that the DA showed to the jurors in court, 10 hours after turning herself in and bailing out immediately, her and her boyfriend are toasting, and the caption said: 'living our best life'. And we were shopping for caskets missing a whole life."
Velado was convicted of Vehicular Manslaughter with gross negligence and felony hit-and-run. She was sentenced to nine years in prison. But the family has now learned Velado is expected to be released early after serving just two and a half years.
"They told me that it was probably good merit credits," Kelli said.
Victim’s advocate, Moses Castillo, is trying to help the family navigate the system to understand exactly why Velado is being released after serving only 28% of her sentence.
"It's re-victimizing this family all over again," he said.
The other side:
FOX 11 contacted the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and is waiting to hear back.
The Source: Information for this story came from an interview with the Montalvo family.