SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Antonio Alcantar, 38, was arraigned Thursday in the murder of La Mesa Police Officer Lauren Craven.
Alcantar, a Navy police officer, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and crashing into a previous accident scene where the 25-year-old officer had moved two people out of danger and then went back to the crash site attempting to save 19-year-old DeVeonte Morris whose car had overturned and was suffering life threatening injuries.
“He consumed alcohol until his blood alcohol content was at .16 over an hour after the time of driving,” said Spencer Sharpe, a deputy district attorney.
Prosecutors say Alcantar’s military police background turns the manslaughter charge into a murder charge.
“He is military police. He has gone through in just a precursory look at his military records specific training and had specific duties that made him uniquely aware of the danger to human life that drinking and driving posed,” Sharpe said.
Defense attorneys argue Alcantar’s service to the nation and lack of criminal history should have weighed more in the charging of their defendant.
Alcantar’s defense attorney Dan Greene is asking the public to hold their judgment of Alcantar until all of the evidence is released.
“He’s not a risk to the community, he’s certainly not a risk of flight and that’s not for show, that’s the person he’s always been and that’s the person he continues to be,” Greene said.
Alcantar is being held on $1 million bail and is expected back in court on Dec. 3.