Hearing Postponed for Accused Drunk Driving Killer

A judge delayed the preliminary hearing for a Simi Valley man accused who allegedly killed a Newbury Park teen while driving drunk in November 2009.

Hector Ortiz, 27, is charged with killing 19-year-old Taylor Moss, a Newbury Park man who attended Moorpark College, while drunk when his car struck Moss’s head-on when the accused was traveling east in the westbound lanes on Highway 101 on Nov. 1 of last year.

The accident also injured two passengers who were with Moss after an outing on Halloween night. Ortiz faces murder charges because prosecutors say there was evidence of “implied malice” in the accident, for which they also charged the man with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and two additional drunken driving counts.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge postponed Monday’s hearing until after a new preliminary hearing will be scheduled on May 25 so prosecutors could obtain the black box data from Ortiz’s Toyota to help them reconstruct the accident.

The California Highway Patrol has served Toyota a warrant to try to obtain the black box. The Japanese automaker has been in the news recently for motor accidents and recalls related to some of its vehicles having problems with sticking accelerators.

Ortiz has pleaded not guilty, but if convicted he could receive a life sentence with the possibility of parole. He is in custody in Los Angeles on $1 million bail.