Sacramento police detective sentenced in crash that killed 2 brothers. Mom says it’s ‘injustice’
Violet Rodriguez fought back tears Monday telling a judge how the deaths of her father and her uncle have unraveled her family.
The 8-year-old girl stood in court and explained the immense sorrow a Sacramento police detective created when his car drifted off a freeway and fatally struck brothers Juan Carlos and Lionel Rodriguez.
“It’s not fair,” she said about the outcome of the criminal case. “I want him to get payback for what he did to my family. ... My family is destroyed because of him.”
Sacramento Police Detective Jonathan Thomas Nangle was on his way to work behind the wheel of his department-issued vehicle on the morning of Dec. 6, 2022, when his car drifted off Interstate 5 and hit the two pedestrians.
Juan Carlos Rodriguez, 33, of Sacramento, and Lionel Rodriguez, 32, of Simi Valley, were standing on the shoulder of I-5 near Sutterville Road in Sacramento near a broken down white Dodge pickup when the detective’s unmarked Ford Fusion hit them.
The California Highway Patrol, which investigated the deadly crash, has said the Ford struck the left rear end of the Dodge, then hit the Rodriguez brothers standing on the driver’s side of the pickup.
About 10 months after the fatal crash, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office filed two misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence against Nangle for the deaths of the Rodriguez brothers. He was placed on administrative leave with his peace officer powers suspended. On Dec. 5, Nangle pleaded to those charges and was convicted.
On Monday, the judge sentenced Nangle to 120 days in the Sacramento County jail and gave him the opportunity to serve that time in alternative sentencing, also known as community service, through the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Alyson L. Lewis said Nangle must apply and enroll in alternative sentencing by April 4. If he’s not enrolled by then, she said, Nangle must surrender himself to the jail. The judge also ordered Nangle to serve one year of informal probation, which means he doesn’t have to report to a probation officer but has to obey all laws and court orders to successfully complete probation.
Lewis said in court she’s not aware of any misdemeanor conviction in which the defendant was ordered to formal probation. She also said she can’t treat Nangle differently than any other person convicted of the same criminal charges.
“I am bound to treat it as a misdemeanor, and maybe it shouldn’t be. And maybe the advocacy of the Rodriguez family would change it at the white building down the street,” Lewis said, suggesting the victims’ family could lobby to change California law. “But here I am bound to follow the law.”
Mother asked for maximum penalty
Family members of the victims in this case asked the judge to sentence Nangle to jail time for the brothers’ deaths. Their mother, aided in court by a Spanish-language interpreter, told the judge that the police detective should be held “fully accountable” and deserves “the maximum legal penalty.”
“If he is granted probation, he would retain his police badge and could continue to serve as an officer in the future,” said Virginia Carranza, the victims’ mother. “This would be an injustice as he would essentially be allowed to resume his life as if nothing had happened.”
Juan Carlos, she said, was an intelligent and skilled plumber with aspirations of opening his own business. She described Lionel as a free spirit who was always joyful. Carranza said both of her sons were good fathers to their children.
Like the Rodriguez family, Nangle read a written statement in court before the judge sentenced him. He apologized to the Rodriguez family “for all the pain I have caused.”
He called that December day “the absolute worst day” of his life, and he said not a day goes by that he doesn’t remember it.
“Because of my mistakes, I can only begin to imagine what they have been going through,” Nangle said in court. “And I want to express how truly sorry I am for everything. I say a prayer for their family every night and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.”
He said as a husband and father with young children, he can only imagine the Rodriguez family’s pain. Nangle said he will live “with the trauma, regret and remorse” of that day for the rest of his life and attends regular therapy sessions to help him cope.
“This is something that has changed me forever and has changed the way I look at driving as a whole. I am overly cautious and hyper alert of everything that goes on around me,” Nangle told the judge. “This accident rocked me to my core, and I take every aspect of driver’s safety extremely seriously. And nothing like this will ever happen again.”
When a judge issued a misdemeanor arrest warrant for Nangle in September 2023, the detective was an eight-year veteran of the Sacramento Police Department.
On Monday, police said Nangle remained on paid administrative leave. The Police Department declined to comment further about outcome of Nangle’s criminal case.
Nangle received a base salary of $108,256 in 2023 and had total pay and benefits that year of just over $226,843, according to the recent compensation records available provided by the state to Transparent California.
Victims’ father
Juan Carlos Rodriguez Sr., questioned Nangle’s remorse in court and the integrity of the investigation into his sons deaths. He suggested not everything in this case was thoroughly reviewed.
“He can’t even look at me in the eyes,” the father said about Nangle.
Monique Rodriguez, the victims’ sister, said she believes her older brothers would have received “fair justice” had the driver that hit them been another civilian and not a police officer.
“It’s absurd how this case has been handled being that Nangle is part of law enforcement, and blue protects blue,” she told the judge. “Our family unites in the hope of fair justice and to show that no one is immune to the punishment they deserve. No matter today’s outcome, God will serve his justice one way or another.“
Carla Acosta, the victims’ cousin, said it remains unclear what led to the deadly collision, criticizing CHP investigators for not administering a sobriety test on Nangle. She also mentioned an April 2021 vehicle crash Nangle was involved with in Sacramento, asking the judge why wasn’t that crash considered as a pattern of “recklessness.”
She said one of her cousins was wearing a reflective construction vest around 6:15 a.m., when Nangle’s car struck them, and both of her cousins had their vehicles parked on the side of the freeway with their hazard lights on.
“To this day, we don’t understand why he struck my cousins,” Acosta said in court. “What happened? We don’t know. We did not get answers.”
Joe Hoffman, Nangle’s attorney, told the judge there was no evidence in this case that indicated the police detective was under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the crash. He said investigators conduct sobriety tests when there’s some suspicion of a DUI; they don’t automatically conduct those tests in every crash.
Hoffman also said there was no evidence to elevate this crash to a felony case, which would require the prosecution to prove the defendant “willfully and wantonly was disregarding human life.” The defense attorney said his client has no previous criminal history, and he was involved in a minor two-vehicle collision in 2021.
Previous on-duty vehicle crash
Nangle was behind the wheel while on duty in the 2021 vehicle crash at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 47th Avenue in south Sacramento, according to a lawsuit filed in July 2021 on behalf of Emily Keophommachak.
Keophommachak was injured in the crash, the lawsuit said, and she suffered the loss of use of property, hospital and medical expenses, general damage and property damage. The city of Sacramento paid $15,000 to settle the matter.
The defense attorney said he also wants Nangle to be treated like any other defendant in court, arguing that the detective should not be punished excessively just because he’s a police officer. In his 23 years of practicing law, Hoffman said he’s never seen a defendant convicted of a misdemeanor sentenced to jail time.
“This case was a traffic infraction with a tragic accident that occurred as a result,” Hoffman argued in court. “I think it’s very clear Mr. Nangle is extremely remorseful. He is committed to driving more carefully. There is a very low chance of recidivism, and we’d ask the court to sentence him in conformity with other similar cases.”
He said an inspection of Nangle’s police car, at the request of the defense, showed that he was not on his phone when the crash occurred.
Deputy District Attorney David Bass, who prosecuted Nangle, said the family’s “perception and anger is understandable.” He said they filed these charges against Nangle in accordance with the evidence.
“This is a heartbreaking situation in a difficult case for everyone involved. Obviously, no one has suffered more than the victims and their family,” Bass told the judge. “Their lives were cut short, far too soon. And their deaths will impact their families forever.”
The victim’s mother has filed a civil lawsuit against Nangle and Sacramento. Her lawsuit has been combined with two other lawsuits filed against Nangle and the city on behalf of the Rodriguez brothers’ children. The lawsuits are still pending and scheduled for a mandatory settlement conference Nov. 4 in Sacramento Superior Court.
