Navy officer guilty of manslaughter in bridge plunge deaths

A Navy petty officer whose car plunged off a soaring bridge in San Diego and killed four people below was convicted of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

A jury also found 27-year-old Richard Sepolio guilty of driving under the influence causing injury but acquitted him of the more serious charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. He also was acquitted of reckless driving and driving over the legal alcohol limit causing injury.

Sepolio could be sentenced to up to 18 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Sepolio had been drinking on Oct. 15, 2016, and was arguing with his girlfriend — now his wife — by cellphone when he tried to speed past another car on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. He lost control of his pickup truck, which crashed through a concrete and plunged 60 feet off the span into a crowd celebrating a motorcycle rally and festival at Chicano Park. The truck crushed vendor booths where people were standing.

Four people died, and seven were hurt.

Sepolio's pickup was recorded doing 81 mph going onto the bridge, which stretches across San Diego Bay and links San Diego to the Navy town of Coronado, where Sepolio was an aviation electronics technician.