VENTURA, Calif. — A Pico Rivera motorist has been sentenced to more than five years in state prison following his conviction for a violent 2024 high-speed crash on U.S. 101 in Newbury Park that claimed the lives of two young passengers, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced.
Leonardo Abel Rodriguez (DOB: 03/05/2005) was sentenced on Thursday, August 13, 2026, in Ventura County Superior Court to five years and four months in state prison.
The state prison sentence comes after Rodriguez formally entered guilty pleas on June 25, 2026, to two felony counts of gross vehicular manslaughter under California Penal Code Section 192(c)(1) for causing the deaths of his girlfriend, Serenity Rizkalla, and his friend, Michael Estrella.
The criminal prosecution was handled by Deputy District Attorney George Brietigam, a trial prosecutor assigned to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office General Trials Unit.
Reckless High-Speed Maneuver on U.S. 101 Shoulder
The fatal collision occurred in the early morning hours of Halloween, October 31, 2024, at approximately 5:26 a.m.
According to California Highway Patrol collision reports and evidence presented by prosecutors, Rodriguez was operating a black Honda Accord traveling southbound on U.S. 101, just north of the Wendy Drive off-ramp in Newbury Park. Vehicle telemetry and forensic accident reconstruction revealed that Rodriguez was driving at an extreme speed of approximately 124 miles per hour.
As he approached slower morning traffic, Rodriguez attempted to bypass a vehicle traveling in the slow lane by making a high-speed passing maneuver along the paved right shoulder of the freeway.
However, a commercial tractor-trailer was legally parked along the highway shoulder directly in his path. Moving at 124 miles per hour, Rodriguez was unable to avoid the obstruction. The front passenger side of the Honda Accord violently struck the rear left corner of the parked semi-truck trailer.
The catastrophic force of the impact ripped through the passenger cabin of the sedan, ejecting two occupants:
- Serenity Rizkalla: Rodriguez’s girlfriend, who was seated in the front passenger seat, was violently ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical responders.
- Michael Estrella: Rodriguez’s friend, who was seated in the right rear passenger seat directly behind Rizkalla, was also ejected during the collision and pronounced dead at the scene.
A third passenger, seated in the left rear seat behind the driver, survived the violent crash and was transported to a local hospital where he was treated for minor physical injuries. Rodriguez was also treated at the hospital for minor injuries before being released and subjected to law enforcement questioning.
"At 124 miles per hour there’s no margin for error," Deputy District Attorney George Brietigam stated following Thursday's sentencing hearing. "The deaths of Serenity Rizkalla and Michael Estrella were the foreseeable result of the defendant’s shockingly poor judgement and dangerous choices. This tragedy was preventable, and their families will forever live with the consequences. We hope today’s sentence provides their loved ones with some measure of closure."
Video Evidence and Legal Proceedings
Investigators confirmed that the horrifying crash was captured on video by another motorist's dashboard camera traveling along the southbound lanes of U.S. 101. The digital footage corroborated witness statements and forensic calculations regarding the vehicle's speed and aggressive lane movement immediately prior to impact.
Toxicology screenings conducted by law enforcement confirmed that neither alcohol nor illegal drugs contributed to the crash, cementing the legal basis for gross vehicular manslaughter centered entirely on excessive speed, extreme recklessness, and illegal shoulder passing.
Driving at speeds exceeding 120 miles per hour on public freeways transforms a standard passenger sedan into a lethal instrument.
California law defines gross negligence in vehicular manslaughter cases as an act performed in a reckless manner that creates a high risk of death or great bodily injury, a threshold unequivocally met when passing traffic on a narrow highway shoulder.
Public safety officials emphasize that high-speed collisions along the U.S. 101 corridor in Ventura County remain a major focus of traffic enforcement units, particularly during early morning hours when commuters, commercial vehicles, and maintenance crews share the road.
Law enforcement authorities urge young drivers to recognize that aggressive driving behaviors carry irreversible, fatal consequences for passengers and surrounding motorists.
Following Thursday's court hearing, Rodriguez was taken into formal custody by law enforcement officers to begin serving his sentence with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Members of the public and media seeking additional information regarding the court case or official records can contact District Attorney Communications Manager Joey Buttitta at (805) 767-3400 or via email at Joey.Buttitta@venturacounty.gov. Official releases can also be reviewed on the Ventura County District Attorney's Office media portal.