Ten years for killing two people while driving drunk and high? That sentence seems light enough even if Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano had been here legally. Now he might serve only three years for the two deaths, thanks to the Calfornia Department of Corrections, which informed the families of the victims that Ortega-Anguiano had earned enough good-conduct credit to get out with only 30% of his sentence served.
As one might imagine, the families are outraged — and point out that even deportation won’t provide much justice. Why? Ortega-Anguiano had been deported twice before he killed two teenagers on the 405 Freeway:
The families of the victims of an Orange County, Calif., high-speed car crash are sending letters to the state to keep an illegal immigrant convicted felon behind bars, as he’s expected to be released from prison over six years before his 10-year sentence is up.
Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano, 43, was driving drunk, high, and speeding at nearly 100mph on the 405 freeway in Orange County in November 2021, when he crashed into a car being driven by a young couple, 19-year-olds Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin, killing them both as they burned alive. In 2022, he was convicted of two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
“It’s disgusting. You have two young, unbelievable future, productive American citizens killed for nothing and that illegal immigrant who already has been deported twice is going to be released again? For what? If even he is deported, he will come back,” Anatoly Varfolomeev, the father of Anya, told Fox News in an interview. He has not changed Anya’s room since her death.
How infuriating is this? Even more so when one hears Ortega-Anguiano’s record. He has multiple felonies on his record in the US over the last 20 years, including spousal battery and kidnapping in 2014 and vehicular theft in 2007. The US finally deported him in 2016, and then again in 2018, only to have him re-enter some time between then and the fatal crash in Orange County in November 2021.
With that record, how does California explain an early release with only 30% of his sentence served? He’s a multiple offender. Even the sentence is a joke, although it was the maximum for the charge brought. The judge could have set the two sentences to be served consecutively, but the charging level and the sentence were likely negotiated in a plea deal, given the rapidity in which Oertga-Anguiano was convicted and sentenced.
However, that doesn’t add up either. Given the earlier felony convictions — at least one of which was a violent crime — Ortega-Anguiano should have faced 25 years to life in prison under California’s Three Strikes law. Even a second strike would require the judge to double the sentence, so Ortega-Anguiano should have gotten a 20-year sentence. Voters passed that law to prevent the early release from prison of habitual felons and scofflaws, and Ortego-Anguiano certainly qualifies for that status. We need some answers as to why his potential parole date wasn’t in 2045 rather than 2025.
ICE has a retainer on Ortega-Anguiano since his 2021 arrest. Tom Homan insists that ICE will seize and deport him if and when he’s released, but that’s akin to closing the barn door after the horse has bolted:
It’s too late for deportation in this case. Ortega-Anguiano will just keep crossing the border and wreaking havoc in the US, including killing people who are just starting their lives. California had an opportunity to give his victims justice — and instead, they are giving this dangerous criminal new opportunities to victimize others.
