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In the wake of an April 9 car crash that killed a Mountain View woman on her way home from work, prosecutors are charging the driver of the truck that hit her with murder, alleging that he was drunk at the time.
Brian Burke, a 34-year-old San Jose resident, was arraigned on the murder charge on Monday and is being held without bail, according to an April 15 press release from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. The defense attorney who represented Burke at his arraignment did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At roughly 11 p.m. last Thursday, Sunnyvale police officers responded to a vehicle collision at the intersection of Central Expressway and Commercial Street.
Upon arrival, officers found Burke in the driver’s seat of a Ford F-150 with “major front-end damage,” the press release said. He is believed to have been driving his vehicle the wrong way down the road when he hit a Jeep Compass head-on. The 52-year-old driver of the Jeep, which also had “major front-end damage,” was extricated from her vehicle but pronounced dead at the scene.
Burke was transported to a local hospital for medical evaluation, according to an April 10 press release from the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. He declined to provide a statement to investigators and refused to give a blood sample, the police press release said.
After obtaining a search warrant, officers collected a blood sample from Burke and arrested him on suspicion of felony driving under the influence.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in Wednesday’s press release that he doesn’t believe any drunk driving fatality is an accident.
“Every single one was an avoidable criminal tragedy, and in this case – a murder,” Rosen said.
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