Suspect in Pedestrian Death Was No Stranger to Police : Background: Motorist had a suspended driver’s license, lengthy record of misdemeanors. Pregnant woman who was killed leaves five children behind.

SANTA ANA —  A pregnant mother of five was struck and killed by a suspected hit-and-run drunk driver who has a suspended license and a long record of misdemeanors, police said Friday.

Carmen Cisneros, 31, was hit by a pickup truck driven by Isikeli (Kelly) Fukofuka, 34, of Orange as she returned home from buying diapers Thursday night, police said. Fukofuka was arrested after a short chase and booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of drunk driving, hit-and-run and vehicular manslaughter, Sgt. Art Echternacht said.

Fukofuka has had a series of run-ins with law enforcement authorities in Orange County over the past several years, including more than half a dozen traffic-related arrests and misdemeanors in connection with public drunkenness, possessing drug paraphernalia, and assault and battery. The most recent charge came five weeks ago, when he was arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness.

Cisneros had left her apartment about 8 p.m. Thursday to go to a local grocery market. About 15 minutes later, as she crossed the 500 block of East 1st Street, a pickup truck that witnesses said was traveling 40 to 50 m.p.h. struck her.

Police and witnesses said Cisneros was pushing a supermarket cart and apparently wasn’t paying attention as she crossed the major thoroughfare. She was not in a crosswalk.

“The driver didn’t see her until the last minute. . . . There were no skid marks apparently,” Echternacht said.

“We really don’t know too much about how it happened,” Manuel Gonzales, 38, Cisneros’ brother-in-law, said Friday. “We’ve heard that she was crossing the street and had been looking down at her hands and may have been trying to count the change from the market.”

Carmen de Frias, a resident in the Santa Ana housing complex on South Oak Street where Cisneros lived, said witnesses told her that Cisneros never had time to move before the truck hit her.

After news of the death circulated at the apartment complex, residents dropped by and offered their condolences. One man knocked and offered furniture, food, “anything” the family might need. A woman brought food.

The victim’s oldest son, 10-year-old Carlos, said, “Mom is dead, and I have to be grown up and set an example for my younger brothers and sisters. If I start crying, they’ll start crying, and we have to be strong.”

In addition to Carlos, Cisneros has three children from a previous marriage, Rogelio, 6; Leonardo, 4, and Araceli, 3. The father is believed to be in Fresno.

Cisneros lived with Jesus Frias, who fathered the couple’s 7-month-old child. Relatives said he was in shock.

“He told us that he cared for Carmen very much, that he loved her,” Manuel Gonzales said. “He said they were looking forward to the birth of their second child. They were hoping for a girl.”

Of the driver, Cisneros’ sister Irma, said, “We haven’t been able to think about him. But I really don’t want to . . . why? To us, she’s dead. It happened.”

Fukofuka’s driver’s license had been suspended in November, 1990, because he did not have proof of auto insurance, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. He never cleared that suspension, nor renewed the license, which expired in September, 1991, DMV records show.

Fukofuka’s latest arrest was on July 30 in a beach parking lot on the Balboa Peninsula, after he and a friend, Gary Brian Jackson, who was driving, sped under the entrance gate to the lot.

Jackson, 31, had a blood-alcohol level of .34, more than four times the legal limit of .08, according to court documents. He was charged with drunk driving, paid $1,164 in fines, served 10 days working with Caltrans and had his license suspended for 90 days.

Fukofuka, who had an almost-empty can of beer at his feet, was charged with being drunk in public and having an open container of alcohol in a moving car, records show. He paid $100 in fines and promised to appear in court last week.

According to records in North Orange County Municipal Court, Fukofuka had also been arrested three times in the Anaheim over a period of 10 months.

He was charged with being drunk in public and “willfully, unlawfully and intentionally” damaging a jail facility Sept. 8, 1990. In July of that year, he was charged with misdemeanor traffic offenses, including an expired registration and driving without a license. In December, 1989, he had also been stopped in Anaheim for allegedly making an unsafe lane change.

In July, 1989, Fukofuka was arrested in Orange on a charge of possessing drug paraphernalia, court records show. He served 30 days in jail.

A year before, also in Orange, he was arrested for striking a man with his fist. Fukofuka, who as charged with assault and battery and resisting arrest, served three days in jail as well as 10 days working with Caltrans.

Cisneros’ family plans to bury her in a small town in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, once her body is released from authorities.

Frias’ uncle, Jose Luis de Frias, said he wished that people who intend to drink and drive this weekend take the time to realize the amount of suffering it can cause.

“Think about all the people that you affect, like those who are suffering now because of this tragedy,” de Frias said. “She leaves five children. It’s important. Think about that the next time you take the first drink.”