Man who hit motorcyclist head-on to be sentenced

A Santa Ana man faces sentencing Friday for killing a Corona del Mar man in an 2006 car accident and endangering a child when he ran away from the scene.

Luis Ramirez, 34, will face 16 years to life in prison for driving drunk at almost three times the limit and crashing head-on into Timothy Lysgaard, 45, who was riding his motorcycle on Ortega Highway.

At about 11:30 a.m. Nov. 5, 2006, Ramirez was driving with his friend and his friend’s 10-year-old daughter in the car when he swerved onto the right shoulder of Ortega Highway then swerved left into oncoming traffic. He hit Lysgaard, killing him instantly. Ramirez’s car careened over a 150-foot embankment. Witnesses said Ramirez was seen throwing beer cans out of the car before he ran away, prosecutors said. He tried to hitchhike in his blood-stained shirt, but bystanders held him until police arrived. The two other people in Ramirez’s car survived.

— Joseph Serna