A state appeals court panel on Tuesday overturned a judge’s order requiring a woman to pay just over $5,800 in funeral and burial expenses in connection with a hit-and-run crash in San Pedro that killed a bicyclist.
The three-judge panel of the 2nd California District Court of Appeals sided with Anisha Lockhart’s claim that a judge erred in ordering her to pay restitution to the California Victims Compensation Board.
Lockhart was sentenced to two years in prison last year after pleading not guilty to one count of hit-and-run causing death or serious injury in connection with the death of Oscar Montoya on March 4, 2023.
According to Los Angeles police, the 51-year-old man was struck around 12:40 a.m. that day while driving north on Pacific Avenue, south of Channel Street.
Montoya died at the scene of the accident.
The 2009 Scion XB involved in the crash was found three days after the collision and Lockhart was arrested five days after the crash, authorities said.
In its six-page ruling in the Lockhart case, the appeals court wrote that “attacking the victim with his car was not a crime.”
“Rather, her only criminal conduct was to leave the scene of the accident without identification or assistance. Consequently, her financial liability is limited to the economic losses incurred by her flight, not the injuries she caused by striking and killing the victim,” the panel found. “Because there was no evidence or indication that the defendant’s flight aggravated Montoya’s injuries or caused his death, the restitution order must be vacated.”
