An unauthorized immigrant who was tried twice for allegedly driving while drunk and causing a crash in San Ysidro that seriously injured a 6-year-old boy will not go to trial a third time, a judge ruled Friday.

The case against 39-year-old Constantino Banda Acosta, a Mexican citizen who has been deported from the United States more than a dozen times, was dismissed during a morning hearing in Chula Vista Superior Court.

On Monday of this week, Judge Stephanie Sontag declared a mistrial in the case after jurors informed her they were unable to reach verdicts on the felony charges, including felony hit and run causing serious injury and driving under the influence of alcohol.

In September, a different jury that heard the Banda case announced it was deadlocked on the felony charges, but convicted him on misdemeanor counts of vandalism, battery and driving without a license.


Sontag sentenced Banda on the three misdemeanor convictions, giving him credit for the more than two years of time he had already served while going through the two trials.

Deputy District Attorney Christopher Chandler said immigration authorities placed a hold on Banda so that he is not released from custody before federal prosecutors decide whether to pursue any federal charges.

Banda was arrested after the May 6 crash that left then-6-year-old Lennox Lake with serious injuries, including a fractured skull.

The boy and his parents were returning home that evening to San Ysidro after a trip to Disneyland.


The case drew national interest after federal authorities said Banda had repeatedly crossed the border illegally, adding fuel to the ongoing debate about immigration in the United States.

Since 2002, Banda had been deported to Mexico, or allowed to return there voluntarily, 17 times, according to records from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Chandler argued in both trials that Banda was behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Silverado when he ran a stop sign at Dairy Mart Road and Camino de la Plaza and broadsided the Lake family’s Honda Accord.

Banda was in the driver’s seat of the pickup when Border Patrol agents pulled him from the vehicle less than two miles from the crash site.


Deputy Public Defender Juliana Humphrey contended that it was actually another man, Jorge Adame Ariza, who was driving at the time of the crash.

Surveillance video shows Adame behind the wheel of the pickup earlier that evening when the pair left a Chula Vista restaurant.

Humphrey has argued that police assumed too quickly that Banda was the driver, and they didn’t question Adame until three days after the crash.

Chandler has said that Banda and Adame switched seats before the crash because Adame did not have a driver’s license.


Adame, who like Banda was a Mexican citizen in the U.S. illegally, testified that it was Banda who ran a stop sign and struck the Lake family’s car.


dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield