A Mission Viejo man with a previous drunken driving conviction was found guilty of second-degree murder Monday in a 2013 wrong-way DUI crash that left a mother of three dead.
William Joseph Carroll is shown in a photo provided to KTLA in 2013.
A jury convicted William Joseph Carroll, 51, in the death of 36-year-old Ana Martinez of Trabuco Canyon, who was driving a minivan when Carroll’s pickup truck slammed into her head on.
About two hours after the crash, Carroll’s blood-alcohol content was nearly three times the legal limit, authorities said.
In 2008, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor driving under the influence and was told that he could be charged with murder if he killed a person while driving drunk, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Ana Martinez is shown at right with her family in a photo provided to KTLA shortly after her 2013 death.
On May 7, 2013, Carroll was driving a truck shortly before midnight when he turned onto Santa Margarita Parkway going southbound in northbound lanes.
He drove about a third of a mile before hitting Martinez, who died at the scene.
Martinez left behind a husband and children who were ages 2, 7 and 15 at the time.
Carroll left a voicemail for a former girlfriend telling her he was drunk, was weaving across the roadway and was “going to die tonight,” the Orange County Register reported after his 2014 booking into jail.
He faces 15 years to life in state prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Jan. 19 in Santa Ana.