2 charged with vehicular manslaughter in deaths near art college, Mountain Road

The Orange County district attorney’s office has charged the drivers in two separate pedestrian-involved incidents in Laguna Beach with vehicular manslaughter.

Prosecutors last week filed criminal charges against Grace Dolores Velure, an 83-year-old St. Paul, Minn., resident accused of hitting and killing 22-year-old Laguna College of Art + Design student Nina Fitzpatrick last spring, Laguna Beach police Capt. Jason Kravetz wrote in an email.

Fitzpatrick was crossing Laguna Canyon Road in front of the campus at 8:46 p.m. April 3 when she was hit by a 2002 Honda Civic driven by Velure, police said.

Velure is charged with vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence and is set to be arraigned Feb. 27.

The district attorney’s office also charged Laguna Beach resident Jameson Reed Crawley, 21, with vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence in the death of Laguna Beach resident Regan Hess, 48, who was crossing South Coast Highway at Mountain Road last May when struck, Kravetz said.

A Laguna Beach police officer saw the collision at 10:29 p.m. May, 21, Kravetz added.

Hess was walking in the crosswalk when a black Chevy Trailblazer traveling south on South Coast Highway hit him, police said.

Crawley’s arraignment is set for Feb. 4.