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A Costa Mesa man with a long history of drunk driving has been arrested on suspicion of murder following a DUI hit-and-run collision on Newport Boulevard Saturday that caused the death of a 74-year-old Newport Beach resident, prosecutors confirmed Tuesday.
Stewart Leacky Waithanji, 28, of Costa Mesa, is facing one count of felony murder, along with two felony charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and two misdemeanor charges related to property damage caused during the collision.
The charges stem from an incident that took place Saturday at around 4 p.m. on Newport Boulevard, south of 17
th Street, Costa Mesa police spokeswoman Roxi Fyad confirmed Tuesday.
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Ronald Ware spent five months in a Santa Ana jail awaiting trial after his arrest in Brea last summer on a federal gun charge.
His day in court never came. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney dismissed the case in January, saying emergency rules that shut down federal jury trials during the pandemic had denied Ware his right to a speedy trial.
“Nowhere in the Constitution is there an exception for times of emergency or crisis,” Carney wrote in the ruling that set Ware free.
Carney has tossed criminal charges against a jewelry-store robbery suspect and three others for the same reason. The decision to shut down all jury trials, he found, was excessive.