Former lawyer convicted in fiery DUI crash that killed truck driver on California freeway

A former attorney has been convicted on multiple charges related to a 2019 crash that killed a truck driver.

On October 20, 2025, Lotfullah Sohaib Latif, 33, was convicted of one felony count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, one felony count of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, one felony count of driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content of .08% or more causing injury, and three felony enhancements of inflicting great bodily injury, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The charges were issued for a crash that took place around 4 a.m. on June 9, 2019, in Garden Grove, California.

CHP received several calls at 3:55 a.m. about a gray Honda Accord that was “blacked out” in the lanes on the 22 Freeway. Minutes later, troopers began receiving calls about a semi truck that struck the Honda and then caught fire at bursting into flames near the 405 Freeway and the 22 Freeway eastbound near Valley View Avenue.

Truck driver Carlos Alberto Lara, 58, died at the scene.

“When CHP officers contacted Latif on the right shoulder of the 22 freeway, Latif denied drinking or having been involved in a collision. Officers noticed Latif’s license plate near a broken guardrail, his right passenger door on the shoulder and alcohol on his breath. The Honda’s Event Data Recorder, known as a vehicle’s black box, recorded the Honda going 89 miles per hour five seconds prior to colliding with the guard rail,” officials said.

“Every day, approximately 34 people die in America in a drunk driving crash. That is one person every 42 minutes who is killed as a result of a selfish decision to get behind the wheel and drive while intoxicated,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “Drunk driving is a crime that is 100 percent preventable, and countless innocent lives would be saved if a night of drinking never included getting behind the wheel of a deadly weapon and driving. If this defendant had made the right decision, Mr. Lara would have been able to go home safely to his family that night instead of being killed by a stranger in a completely preventable crash.”

Latif is scheduled for sentencing on January 9, 2026. He faces up to ten years in state prison.