A repeat DUI offender was sentenced today to 15 years to life in state prison for a crash that killed a woman in Long Beach just over four years ago.
Judge Laura Laesecke imposed the term on Richard Wade Roberts, 54, of Long Beach, in connection with the Jan. 27, 2018, crash that killed Bridget Ingham, 49, according to Deputy District Attorney Kenneth Chiu.
Roberts—whom court records indicate had six prior DUI convictions dating back as far as 1983—pleaded no contest on March 28 to one count of second-degree murder.
Roberts was behind the wheel of a 2006 Toyota Tacoma that broadsided the driver’s side of a 2007 Honda Fit at 8th Street and Euclid Avenue, Long Beach police said shortly after the crash.
Ingham was on her way to meet a friend to go to a movie when her vehicle was struck, according to her obituary, which noted that she had “elected to donate her organs and it has given us some peace that she could help others even through her death.” The woman taught yoga and was a 20-year employee of the Irish pub O’Malley’s On Main in Seal Beach.