Bailee Lynn Rios missed her first court appearance as prosecutors charged her with two counts of second-degree murder.
Rios, 36, remained hospitalized Thursday when she was a no-show at her scheduled arraignment, forcing Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman to detail the charges against her at a press conference instead. She is expected to appear Friday morning. Hochman revealed Rios was allegedly high on drugs and carrying drugs in her vehicle when her Ford Expedition barreled through a Chatsworth intersection at high speed Tuesday, slamming into an LA Metro bus. She will also face charges of driving under the influence and reckless driving.
Hochman called the deaths preventable, adding she didn’t need to get behind the wheel while impaired or drive through the red light on the wrong side of the road. She faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars if convicted. Rios is currently being held on bail set at $4.03 million.
In addition to the two people killed on the bus, five other people were injured, including two who were thrown from the vehicle, Hochman said. The LA County Department of the Medical Examiner identified the bus crash victims as Gage Weida, 31, and Daniel Castillo, 46, on Wednesday morning.
Castillo’s family said they wish they would have had more time with him. “Our dad brought so much love, laughter, joy, and light into our world. We are incredibly blessed to have loved him and to have been loved by him,” the family said in a statement.
Weida’s family described him as a “kind, caring, and selfless son.” Weida’s girlfriend, Autumn Reiff, shared an emotional tribute to the 31-year-old on Facebook Wednesday morning. “We were so young and in love, my sugar muffin, my boo, my other half, the person that was the closest to me, someone who loved me unconditionally and that I loved back,” Reiff wrote. The couple had been together for almost a decade, according to Reiff. “Wake me up from this bad dream, my head hurts so much from crying,” she added. “My world is shattered. I ask the lord why he couldn’t have taken me first.”
Cops discovered suspected methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in Rios’ vehicle following the wreck, sources with knowledge of the investigation told the California Post. Rios had “big concerns lately” leading up to the crash, her close friend Brad Aragon told the same outlet. “Brad, it’s not a joking matter on this bf thing its serious and im honestly scared but yes of course imma come see you,” read a text from Rios to Aragon at 1:24 p.m. Tuesday — only hours before her SUV embedded itself into the bus. “She was saying lately that she was associating with certain people that she shouldn’t be associating with. I was going to help her with that,” he said. Rios allegedly smashed into the bus five hours after the text exchange.
Hochman also mentioned the NBC news helicopter crash that killed reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw. The crash indirectly resulted in a horrific chain of events, leading to NBC’s chopper plummeting to the ground. The helicopter also killed Edy Gutierrez Mejia, a bystander on the ground. The news of the helicopter crash sent shockwaves through Los Angeles and the rest of the nation. KNBC has been scrambling to cover the tragedy while grieving two of their own. Mourners have laid flowers at a makeshift memorial at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima — the site where the NewsChopper 4 would fly out from.
The California Post obtained exclusive video of the crash, showing Rios’ SUV smash into the bus at high speed, sending debris everywhere. The crash occurred during rush hour Tuesday, with Rios’ silver SUV barreling into the Metro bus and embedding her vehicle into it.
Rios is expected to appear in court Friday morning.
