Marcos Forestal, a rising star in professional boxing, pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated Wednesday after a head-on collision left a pregnant woman dead.

Krystil Kincaid, 29, was driving a minivan on Warren Road in Hemet at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday when Forestal’s BMW veered into her lane and struck her at a high speed, Hemet police said.



For the record: A previous version of this article misspelled Krystil Kincaid’s last name as Kinkaid in one instance.

Kincaid, who was eight months pregnant, died at the hospital along with her unborn baby.

In a video that Forestal made and posted to social media following the crash, he can be seen walking near his vehicle as sirens wail in the background.


“I had an accident. Look what happened to me guys, look.” he says, speaking directly to the camera in Spanish and panning to his crashed vehicle.

The video then shows police approaching him to ask if he was OK. “Yes … not really good,” the super bantamweight says.

Forestal was taken to a hospital for minor injuries and then transported to Riverside County Jail, Hemet police said. They suspect Forestal was driving while intoxicated.

The 28-year-old appeared in court Wednesday and is being held on $75,000 bail, according to a spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney’s office. A felony settlement conference was scheduled for November.


Forestal moved from the Guantanamo province in Cuba to Los Angeles a few years ago to advance his career as a professional boxer. By that time, he had already beat former Olympian Robeisy Ramirez and won three national championships in Cuba, according to a 2015 press release by Forestal’s former manager, Gary Hyde.

“He has what it takes to become world champion,” wrote Hyde, who also managed the career of world champion Guillermo Rigondeaux. “We couldn’t find a U.S.-based opponent to fight Marcos because they said he was another Rigondeaux and Olympic champion.”

Forestal’s manager, Christina Carillo, of Jab Management International Inc., said she would not comment until an investigation of Forestal’s alleged DUI crash was complete.

“I would like to extend my deepest condolences to those that have lost their loved ones in this horrible tragedy,” Carillo said in a statement. “At this time, we are cooperating fully with the ongoing investigation.”


alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com

Twitter: @r_valejandra