People v. Verette CA1/1

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL

BACKGROUND

A. The Crash and the Events Leading Up to It. On the evening of December 16, 2019, Verette got together with a woman who was a close, longtime friend. They met in a grocery store parking lot, and the friend got into Verette’s sports utility vehicle. They later drove to

1 a lookout point in El Sobrante, where they talked for around an hour, then had sex and used methamphetamine.1 Upon leaving the lookout point, Verette drove with his friend down Appian Way. The friend told Verette to slow down as they drove on wet pavement, but Verette drove quickly through a yellow light, and the friend was “kinda scared.” Verette’s friend was apprehensive about unsafe driving. Speeding, sudden jerks, and slamming brakes triggered a response “like PTSD” because she had been in an accident in 2014 that killed two of her children. A Pinole police officer who saw Verette driving though the yellow light estimated that Verette was driving around 60 miles per hour in a 35- miles-per-hour zone. Verette noticed the officer and said to his friend, “That was a cop right there, huh?” Verette then drove onto Interstate 80 heading east, and the officer followed…