SANTA ANA — A Long Beach man pleaded guilty and was immediately sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison for a methamphetamine-fueled crash in a stolen vehicle that killed a Montana man and critically injured another victim in Fullerton.
Randy Lamar Wilkins, 40, also pleaded guilty to bringing methamphetamine into the Fullerton jail following his arrest.
Wilkins admitted a felony count each of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence of a drug causing injury, buying or receiving a stolen vehicle and smuggling a drug into a jail, along with a misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended license, with a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury on the victim who survived.
The crash occurred at 9:51 a.m. April 1 in front of Charlie’s Best restaurant at the intersection of Euclid Street and Valencia Drive.
Police said the driver of a stolen Toyota Highlander T-boned a Honda Accord, killing 44-year-old Bryan Tyler Kirst of Missoula, who was a passenger in the Honda, whose driver was hospitalized with “significant but non-life-threatening injuries.”
Fullerton police Lt. Jon Radus said police were initially called at 9:38 a.m. regarding a reckless driver at Orangethorpe Avenue and Brookhurst Road, but before officers arrived, they were notified about a driver “acting erratically” at Brookhurst and Valencia. The crash occurred minutes later.
Wilkins was speeding eastbound on Valencia before broadsiding the Accord, Radus said. The Highlander was reported stolen out of Long Beach, he said.