Auto thief gets only 10 years in prison after a DUI hit and run that killed a woman in Anaheim

Eric Matthew Martinez, a 25-year-old man pleaded guilty on Thursday to killing Jana Goulding, a 44-year-old pedestrian, while speeding in a stolen SUV while high on methamphetamine in Anaheim. He will only serve ten years in prison after striking a plea deal with the prosecutor.

Martinez’s plea deal did away with a felony charge of driving under the influence of a drug causing injury and a misdemeanor count of driving while addicted to a drug and sentencing enhancements for inflicting great bodily injury.

Martinez ended up accepting charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, hit and run with permanent and serious injury, and theft with a prior felony conviction of driving or taking of a vehicle, as well as admitting to a sentencing enhancement for fleeing the scene of a vehicular manslaughter.

Anaheim police responded to the fatal crash caused by Martinez at about 1:20 a.m. on April 22, 2023, at the 700 block of North East Street, according to the Anaheim Police Department.

Placentia police had been pursuing Martinez, the driver of a stolen vehicle, but they were no longer in pursuit when he lost control and crashed on East Street.

Anaheim police arrested Martinez at about 9:10 a.m. after responding to a report of a suspicious person at a church at the 1400 block of East La Palma Avenue.

Martinez was accused in the criminal complaint of speeding, making unsafe lane changes, and driving the wrong way in the stolen 2012 BMW.

Martinez previously pleaded guilty on Feb. 23, 2022, to misdemeanor charges of theft with a prior felony conviction of driving or taking of a vehicle and buying or receiving a stolen vehicle or equipment.