OAKLAND — A San Leandro man agreed to serve 11 years in prison for killing a bicyclist in a 2020 collision that one witness claimed was intentional, court records show.
Ric Acosta, 43, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the June 28, 2020 crash that killed 52-year-old Mark Lee Moore in San Leandro. Acosta, who was originally charged with murder, has been formally sentenced but remains at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, with a victim restitution hearing set for December, court records show.
Acosta was driving down Hesperian Boulevard when his Mercedes struck Moore, who was riding a bicycle. A man in Acosta’s car — who admitted to earlier methamphetamine use — claimed that Acosta announced he was going to run Moore over, then did so. Another witness, a woman in a nearby car, said that Acosta had been driving “erratically” and that she had to swerve out of the path of the Mercedes before the collision.
“What happened that day was an accident. Mr. Acosta did not intend to hit and kill Mr. Moore but his unsafe and irresponsible driving resulted in just that,” Acosta’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Madeline Zepeda, said at the 2022 preliminary hearing.
Acosta has been granted about six years’ worth of credit for time served while he was in jail awaiting a resolution to his case, court records show.