An El Monte man pleaded not guilty on Thursday, Dec. 4, to killing an Alhambra police officer and his own passenger in a collision between a reported stolen Hyundai SUV and a police cruiser during a pursuit.
Steven Ara Zapata, 27, was arraigned at Alhambra Superior Court on two counts of murder, one count of reckless driving causing injury and two counts of fleeing a pursuing officer’s vehicle causing death.
He faces 80 to 120 years to life in prison if convicted as charged.
Bail was set at $4.05 million, according to Venusse Dunn, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office.
Around 3 a.m. on Nov. 20, Zapata was driving an SUV stolen out of West Covina, California Highway Patrol officials said, and led Alhambra police on a chase.
Zapata allegedly crashed into Officer Alec Sander‘s police SUV at Valley Boulevard and Edgewood Drive in Alhambra.
Sanders, 28, died at Los Angeles General Medical Center while one of Zapata’s passengers, Gabriela Moreno, 42, was ejected from the Hyundai and died at the scene.
Zapata and his second passenger in the Hyundai, a 52-year-old man, were injured and hospitalized.
Zapata has prior convictions in Los Angeles county. On July 29, 2021, he pleaded no contest to robbery and taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent, court records show. As part of the plea deal, a charge of kidnapping to commit another crime was dismissed.
He was also sentenced on the same date for another case in which he had pleaded no contest to possession of a firearm by a narcotics addict. A charge of possession of ammunition was dismissed in this case, court records show.
Zapata was being held at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles.