A Santa Barbara County woman has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for a drunken, wrong-way drive on Highway 101 that ended in a fatal head-on crash, prosecutors said — a rare murder conviction in a DUI case.
The plea
Kendra Cordova, 36, entered the guilty plea on June 22 in Santa Maria Superior Court, according to Noozhawk. Under the agreement, prosecutors dismissed the remaining counts — including vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence — in exchange for the plea to murder. She is scheduled to be sentenced August 4 and faces 15 years to life in state prison.
The crash
The collision happened before dawn on September 8, 2024, on Highway 101 near Betteravia Road in Santa Maria, on California's Central Coast. Cordova was driving south in the northbound lanes and continued the wrong way for miles, reaching highway speeds and passing a California Highway Patrol officer who tried to stop her before the impact, the Santa Maria Times reported.
The head-on crash killed Alma Teresa Alcorta Del Lazaro, 53, of Santa Maria. Her husband, who was in the vehicle with her, survived with injuries. A blood test taken after the crash put Cordova's blood-alcohol level at roughly three times the legal limit; she had been working a bartending shift earlier that night, according to Noozhawk.
Why a murder charge
Second-degree murder charges in drunken-driving deaths stem from a California legal principle, rooted in a 1981 state Supreme Court case, that allows prosecutors to argue a DUI driver acted with "implied malice" — a conscious disregard for the danger to human life — rather than mere negligence. Such charges typically follow especially reckless conduct or prior DUI warnings, and they carry far harsher penalties than manslaughter.
Cordova will be sentenced next month. For the family of the woman she killed, the plea brings a measure of resolution to a case that began on a dark stretch of freeway nearly two years ago.
