Murder Charges After a Fatal Bus Crash in Chatsworth — and a Second Helicopter Crash
Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31, after an SUV struck a Los Angeles Metro bus. She is being held on $4.1 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned, or formally face the charges in court, on 18 September. The Guardian
Prosecutors allege Rios was driving under the influence when she sped on the wrong side of the road, ran a red light, and crashed her SUV into the bus in Chatsworth. ABC7 Rios drove a 2004 Ford Expedition. AP
Rios is from Simi Valley. She was arrested on Tuesday night and is being held in a Los Angeles jail pending arraignment.
Castillo and Weida were identified as the two bus passengers killed in the crash. Castillo left behind four children.
A news helicopter responding to the bus crash then crashed, killing pilot George Marciniw and reporter Eliana Moreno on board. Pedestrian Edy Gutierrez Mejia, 29, died in the helicopter crash. Marciniw and Moreno worked for Angel City Air, which provided aerial coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52. Moreno was born in Orange County and joined Angel City Air in 2010.
The National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency that investigates major transport accidents, is investigating the bus collision in addition to the helicopter crash. NTSB investigator Fabian Salazar said "video from the last seconds of the helicopter crew's broadcast is probably the most important evidence discovered so far."
The broader context here is that two separate fatal investigations are now running in parallel from a single chain of events. The criminal case centers on the allegations about impairment, speed, wrong-side driving and the red-light violation. The safety investigation covers both the ground collision and the air crash, and each track has a different job. One will test whether the driving conduct meets the charge filed. The other will examine how each crash unfolded and what operational factors were involved.
Looking at what comes next, the arraignment will set the procedural terms for the murder case, including plea and custody. Bail is already set at a high figure. Evidence from the bus scene, witness accounts and any toxicology findings, or lab tests for alcohol or drugs, will matter for the prosecution's account. For the helicopter crash, the broadcast video cited by the investigator gives safety officials a rare contemporaneous record from inside the final seconds of flight. How prosecutors use material from the bus investigation, and how much the NTSB releases while its work continues, will shape public understanding of a sequence that began with an alleged red-light crash and ended with a second deadly crash at the response scene.
