A 68-year-old man with previous convictions for drunken driving was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder for a hit-and-run collision that killed a bicyclist in Huntington Beach.
Elias Madriz Gutierrez of Orange is accused of hitting 51-year-old transient Kristin Bellovich just after midnight Monday morning at Beach Boulevard and Glencoe Drive, police said.
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He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.
Gutierrez was behind the wheel of a gray 2023 Ford Bronco that struck Bellovich and allegedly fled, police said. The victim was southbound in the far right lane on Beach north of Glencoe when she was struck from behind, police said.
Gutierrez has prior DUI convictions in April 2018 and January 2009, which allows prosecutors to consider filing an upgraded charge from manslaughter to second-degree murder, according to court records.
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