New details emerge in fatal alleged drunken driving crash
BY JASON KOTOWSKI Californian staff writer jkotowski@bakersfield.com
The 19-year-old alleged drunken driver in a Mojave crash last month that killed one man and badly wounded another repeatedly told an officer at the scene to "just take me to prison," according to California Highway Patrol reports.
It didn't take officers long to determine John Robert Cullinan had been drinking. For one, he admitted drinking Schnapps and Bacardi at a desert bonfire party earlier that morning, newly available reports filed in Kern County Superior Court say.
Officers smelled alcohol on Cullinan's breath, his eyes were red and watery, his demeanor erratic and his speech slurred, according to the CHP reports. And he twice blew a .22 estimated blood alcohol content on a breathalyzer, the reports say.
That amount is nearly three times the legal driving limit.
Cullinan was arrested after being released from a hospital July 11 and booked on suspicion of DUI manslaughter without gross negligence, DUI causing bodily injury, and DUI with blood alcohol content of .08 or more. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and a status conference is set for Aug. 9.
The Mojave resident made few other statements to officers following the crash other than that he was the driver and wasn't going more than 70 mph, the reports say. He said there was much he couldn't remember or didn't know.
Cullinan could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The 4:30 a.m. July 6 crash killed 21-year-old Joseph Ginnow, who was riding in the right front passenger seat of Cullinan's 2001 Chevrolet pickup, officers reported. Johnny Ginnow, 18, was in the middle passenger seat and suffered a broken left orbital socket and abrasions on both arms and knees.
Johnny Ginnow told officers he remembered the bonfire party but had no recollection of leaving the party or getting into the pickup, according to the reports.
Cullinan was also injured, suffering a lacerated liver and abrasions to both arms, the reports say.
The reports say Cullinan was driving east on Silver Queen Road, west of Highway 14, when he failed to negotiate a curve and went off the roadway and onto the dirt shoulder. The pickup slid into a wooden utility pole, shearing it off at the base and crushing the right side of the pickup.
The truck continued sliding and rotating in a clockwise manner until it came to a stop facing south and blocking the eastbound lane of Silver Queen Road, the reports say.
Most CommentedMost Popular
The family of David Silva announced Friday it has filed its long-expected federal civil rights claims against the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, six sheriff’s deputies and a sergeant, two California Highway Patrol officers, the county and the state alleging excessive police force killed him.
SACRAMENTO -- The California High-Speed Rail Authority won approval Thursday from a federal railroad oversight board to start construction this summer on the first leg of what would be the nation's first bullet train.
He’s Dr. Merle Haggard now. The bad-boy hero of the rebel strain of music that put Bakersfield on America’s cultural map half a century ago did something Friday he hadn’t done since he was 9: He sat still in school.
The Panama-Buena Vista Union School District Tuesday night unanimously approved a contract of employment to hire Kevin Silberberg as its new superintendent.
A Bakersfield attorney’s rocky marriage, marked by a divorce suit and a history of loud, public arguments, reportedly erupted into violence early Wednesday morning when police say he turned a gun on his wife and fired.
They don't look any more like millionaires in person than they do on television's A&E Network, but Hoffmann Hospice's bet on the cast of the reality show "Duck Dynasty" paid off Sunday.
A woman found dead in a southeast Bakersfield garage Tuesday was identified Friday as 18-year-old Mia Ramirez of Bakersfield.
After a search that lasted much of Tuesday afternoon, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man on suspicion of homicide in connection with the discovery of a woman’s body in a southeast Bakersfield garage.