A woman who ran over and killed a motorcyclist during a fit of road rage in the South Bay was sentenced Friday to six years in state prison.
Darla Renee Jackson, 27, pleaded guilty in January to voluntary manslaughter. Jackson, who could have received up to 11 years behind bars, was sentenced by Judge Francis Devaney.
Jackson had faced a second-degree murder charge in the May 28, 2015, death of 39-year-old Zachary Buob, a U.S. Navy chief petty officer in special operations.
Defense attorney Stephen Cline argued that the evidence supported a charge of gross vehicular manslaughter, not murder. Deputy District Attorney Laura Evans previously told a judge that Jackson passed Buob in the fast lane of northbound Interstate 5 near E Street, swerved toward him several times — causing him to flinch — chased him across four lanes of traffic, then ran him down on state Route 54.
Jackson was five feet behind Buob and going 80 mph when traffic slowed and she plowed into him, the prosecutor said.
But Cline said there was no intent to kill on Jackson’s part and said the entire road rage incident occurred in a “minute or two.”
California Highway Patrol Officer Brad Clinkscales testified at an earlier hearing that Jackson told him Buob passed her on northbound Interstate 5 in Chula Vista at about 5:20 p.m., then slowed in front of her.
Jackson said Buob got on her right side, kicked her car, flipped her off, then sped across all lanes toward eastbound state Route 54, according to Clinkscales. Jackson told the officer she gave chase because she wanted to exchange insurance information with Buob and “wasn’t going to let him do that.”
Jackson said Buob accelerated to about 95 mph as he transitioned onto Route 54 and she tried to keep up.
She said traffic slowed and she tried to avoid hitting the back of Buob’s motorcycle, but she ran him over, pushing the motorcycle and its rider some 300 feet before it went down. Buob died at a hospital.
