Driver's alcohol content possibly at 0.33

Bradley Bledsoe’s blood alcohol content may have been as high as 0.33 - about four times higher than the legal limit and high enough to leave most people in a stupor or comatose - when he allegedly caused an accident that killed six people, an expert testified Friday.

After hearing that and other evidence, Yuba County Judge Julia Scrogin bound Bledsoe over for trial on six counts each of second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while driving drunk.

Tomas and Maribel Negrete, their two young children and Maribel Negrete’s parents died in the September 2006 collision on Highway 70 in Linda.

During a 3 1/2-hour interrogation, Bledsoe admitted driving the 1996 GMC Suburban that rear-ended the Negretes’ vehicle, California Highway Patrol Officer Charles Swift testified.

Bledsoe began by denying involvement but had confessed by the end of the interrogation, which included being shown pictures of the accident scene south of the E Street bridge, said Swift.

“Everything I told you was a lie and everything you said was the truth,” Bledsoe said in the videotaped interview, according to Swift, a member of the CHP’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team.

Bledsoe provided a detailed description of his alcohol consumption that day, including the equivalent of six beers at the Corner Bar in Yuba City just before the accident, said Swift.

He admitted running from the accident scene and spending the night in a car parked in a friend’s driveway, Swift said.

CHP Officer Daniel Yeager spotted Bledsoe walking home the next morning and arrested him. Bledsoe smelled of alcohol and his eyes were bloodshot, Yeager testified.

Yeager took Bledsoe to Rideout Memorial Hospital for a blood test, which showed a blood alcohol content of 0.13 percent about 10 1/2 hours after the accident, said Ronald Nies, a laboratory analyst with the state Department of Justice.

Taking the alcohol “burn-off” rate into account, Bledsoe’s alcohol level could have been as high as 0.33 when the accident occurred at 10:30 the previous night, said Nies.

Bledsoe said during the interrogation that he drank no more alcohol after the accident, Swift testified.

Swift said Bledsoe claimed to remember little after leaving the Corner Bar, not even three near-collisions described by witnesses.

Bledsoe said the collision with the Negrete vehicle “woke him up” and he remembered saying to his friend Miguel Vega, a passenger in the Suburban, “Let’s get out of here,” according to Swift.

Vega was subpoenaed to testify at Friday’s hearing but failed to show up. Scrogin issued a warrant for his arrest.

The CHP analyzed the accident for months, producing a 300-page report.

CHP Officer Steve Ruppert, an accident reconstruction expert, testified that high-tech analysis revealed Bledsoe was driving 76 mph when he hit the Negrete vehicle, which was traveling at 60 mph.

Bledsoe will be arraigned on the charges Nov. 5.

Appeal-Democrat reporter Rob Young can be reached at 749-4710. You may e-mail him at ryoung@appealdemocrat.com.