Man sentenced after falling asleep behind wheel, causing fatal crash

OROVILLE — The case of a deadly crash leaving two dead and others severely injured in August was closed with a jail sentence for the man found responsible, said to have fallen asleep behind the wheel.

Dangelo Charles, 25, was sentenced Tuesday in Butte County Superior Court on felony counts of manslaughter, reckless driving and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a press release from Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey.

According to Ramsey, Charles was driving south on Highway 149 near Highway 99 with a woman and her 3-year-old son when he fell asleep behind the wheel around 2:30 p.m. Aug. 13, 2023; they traveled straight across the gravel median into northbound traffic, and crashed head-on into a pickup.

Two people in the pickup, Oscar Vasquez and Ana Pareja-Estrada, were both found dead upon police arrival; Charles, the mother and her son were extricated with serious injuries, Ramsey said.

During the rescue effort, a loaded handgun was found in Charles’ front seat — he’d previously served a prison term for armed robbery in Sacramento County, the release said.

In Charles’ probation report, he stated that he was up in the late night before driving his girlfriend and her child toward Sacramento, and he admitted smoking cannabis in the morning, according to the release. Hospital blood tests found some cannabis but no alcohol.

The mother has since fully recovered, but according to doctors her child was permanently paralyzed from the waist down from  in the crash, the release said.

Judge Corie Caraway sentenced Charles to 15 years and four months in jail. According to the release, Caraway said state law mandates shorter terms when defendants are 25 or younger — however the judge found that justice would “not be served by a lower term” and that public safety required a longer sentence.