Crime & Safety
Menifee Driver Charged In Fatal Crash Is Sought By Authorities
Fernando Velasquez Acosta, 43, of Menifee, allegedly killed Carol Omo Aba of Perris in May 2025. He's now at large.
MENIFEE, CA — An unlicensed motorist accused of running over and killing a 30-year-old woman in Menifee while drunk, then fleeing the scene, remained at large Monday, with an active arrest warrant requiring any law enforcement agency that encounters him to take him into custody.
Fernando Velasquez Acosta, 43, of Menifee, allegedly killed Carol Omo Aba of Perris in May 2025.
Acosta is charged with hit-and-run resulting in death, driving under the influence, DUI with a blood alcohol level well in excess of the legal limit and driving without a license.
The defendant has been sought since March, when the Riverside County District Attorney's Office filed the criminal complaint against him. His whereabouts remain unknown.
According to California Highway Patrol Officer Javier Navarro, about 9:30 p.m. May 29, 2025, Aba was crossing the on-ramp for southbound I-215 at Placentia Avenue when Acosta allegedly turned onto the freeway from the street in his Ford F-150 pickup and plowed into the victim at an undetermined speed.
"The driver fled the scene southbound on the freeway without rendering any aid to the pedestrian," the CHP spokesman said.
County fire paramedics reached the location minutes later and attempted life-saving measures, but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Several motorists witnessed the hit-and-run and called 911, providing details to the CHP and the sheriff's department, which immediately routed its nearby STAR-9 patrol helicopter to the area.
The chopper crew soon spotted Acosta's pickup in the 27600 block of Blue Diamond Lane, where he was loitering next to it underneath a carport, according to the CHP.
Menifee Police Department and CHP officers converged on the location roughly 45 minutes after the alleged hit-and-run, taking the defendant into custody without incident.
He indicated that he was in medical distress and required treatment, so he was taken to a hospital, where he was admitted for evaluation. The specific cause of his discomfort was not disclosed.
It was unclear whether he was ever booked into jail.
He has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
