Natasha Leodjaja
A 18-year-old woman has been sentenced to 90 days in jail, roughly nine months of electronic home monitoring and five years probation for crashing a car while intoxicated and causing the death of her best friend of the same age, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Natasha Leodjaja of San Jose was sentenced Friday after pleading no contest in May to vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving causing injury, both felonies.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said the victim’s parents asked the judge in a letter not to prosecute Leodjaja because “it will just ruin a life when one is already ruined.”
“The defendant will have to live knowing she’s responsible for the loss of her best friend, which is the worst punishment one can carry. That’s the sentence she’ll bear for the rest of her life,” according to the letter read by Wagstaffe.
Wagstaffe said the family’s letter likely led to a lesser sentence, but added “society still has to hold people accountable for their conduct.”
Wagstaffe said Leodjaja has taken responsibility and has been remorseful for her actions in conversations with her probation officer.
“I’m anxious and forever guilty and can’t begin to describe how it feels to be the one to have caused the death of my best friend. … She was like an older sister to me,” Leodjaja said to her probation officer, according to Wagstaffe. “I’m heartbroken over this and want to turn back time. … People tell me it was an accident, but I feel like a murderer. I’m so furious at myself for letting this happen.”
Prosecutors said that at about 3:15 a.m. Feb. 23, Leodjaja was behind the wheel of a 2018 Audi sedan heading south on Highway 101 near Whipple Avenue in Redwood City when she veered off the road.
The car went down an embankment, flew into the air and crashed into a light pole and two trees before coming to a stop on its roof, according to prosecutors. The victim, Silvia Chalista, died at the scene.
Leodjaja, who was injured, was taken to a hospital where her blood was taken to test for alcohol. She was also given an alcohol breath test that allegedly revealed she had a blood-alcohol level of between .06 and .07, according to prosecutors.
It is illegal to drive in California with a blood-alcohol level that is .08 or above, but prosecutors said Leodjaja had “objective symptoms of intoxication and indicated she had consumed ‘lots of shots’ at a party in San Francisco.”
Prior to being sentenced, Leodjaja was out of custody on a $100,000 bail bond posted on Feb. 26.
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