Cyclist pleads guilty in Castro crosswalk death

Chris Bucchere fatally struck pedestrian Sutchi Hui. Chris Bucchere fatally struck pedestrian Sutchi Hui. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Cyclist pleads guilty in Castro crosswalk death 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

In what San Francisco prosecutors call the first conviction of its kind, a bicyclist who fatally struck a 71-year-old pedestrian in a Castro neighborhood sidewalk last year has pleaded guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter.

Under a plea agreement, however, 37-year-old Chris Bucchere of Marin County will not serve any time behind bars. Instead, he will be sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service when he goes before Judge James Collins in San Francisco Superior Court on Aug. 16.

Also, Collins could reduce Bucchere's conviction to a misdemeanor after six months if he complies with terms of his sentence.

District Attorney George Gascón, however, said the conviction sends the proper message.

"We made it very clear that we wanted Mr. Bucchere to be held accountable, and I think it was important to get a felony conviction because the conduct warranted it," Gascón said Monday.

"On the other hand, he is a first-time offender, and we want to give him a chance for rehabilitation and redemption."

The felony case had no known precedent - at least in California - and for months, it looked like it be might be headed to a courtroom showdown. Bucchere's attorney, Ted Cassman, repeatedly rejected talk of pleading guilty to anything more serious than a misdemeanor.

Prosecutors, however, believed they had evidence that Bucchere behaved recklessly before allegedly sailing through a red light at Castro and Market streets on March 29, 2012, and hitting Sutchi Hui of San Bruno, who was walking with his wife. She was unharmed.

The case gained particular notoriety after Bucchere, who was hospitalized for injuries in the crash, apparently posted his thoughts on the accident to the Mission Cycling AM Riders Google group.

The post said the author was traveling south on Divisadero Street, which becomes Castro just north of Market, and was about to cross Market when the traffic light ahead of him turned yellow.

"I was already way too committed to stop," the post said. "The light turned red as I was cruising through the middle of the intersection and then, almost instantly, the southern crosswalk on Market and Castro filled up with people coming from both directions. ... I couldn't see a line through the crowd and I couldn't stop, so I laid it down and just plowed through the crowded crosswalk in the least-populated place I could find."

Bucchere, who is free on $150,000 bail, said the light was still yellow when he entered the intersection. Surveillance footage from cameras mounted near the intersection was inconclusive, but a prosecution witness testified at Bucchere's preliminary hearing that the bicyclist had raced through three red lights before striking Hui.

Bucchere's lawyer did not return a call Monday seeking comment.

Hui's family has not commented on Bucchere's guilty plea, which he entered Thursday, but a law enforcement source tells us they "were in complete agreement with the terms."

A manslaughter conviction for gross negligence could have landed Bucchere in state prison for as long as six years - though such an outcome was highly unlikely, according to law enforcement sources.

On the other hand, Bucchere did face the real risk of serving some jail time had he been convicted of a misdemeanor at trial.

It's worth noting that in another high-profile bike-crash case, 23-year-old Randolph Ang pleaded guilty to misdemeanor manslaughter for running over a visitor from Washington, D.C., and was sentenced last year to 500 hours of community service and three years' probation.

In the end, prosecutors say justice was served in the Bucchere case.

"This was not so much about Mr. Bucchere," Gascón said. "This was about preventing future collisions and death."