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Fatal Agua Dulce Wrong-Way Crash Trial Continued To Next Week

A Burbank man charged with two counts of murder for an Agua Dulce crash last June is due back in court Wednesday, when his preliminary hearing is set to resume.


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Bradford E. Pate, 38, of Burbank, is being charged with killing the Rev. Manard Giles, and Mattie Lee Ferguson in a wrong-way crash on Highway 14 in the early morning hours June 22.

During a preliminary, the evidence in the case is presented to a judge who decides if the burden of proof is enough to warrant a trial for a suspect.

In a previous interview, Deputy District Attorney Mykka Piantanida indicated that the hearing could take more than one day because of the severity of the charges and the fact that there were numerous victims.

Detectives said a truck driven by Pate was driving the wrong way on the freeway when it struck a car driven by Giles in which Lee was a passenger.

Giles, a 77-year-old Quartz Hill minister, drove the 2006 Chrysler 300 died on scene in Saturday’s collision. Ferguson, a 60-year-old Lancaster woman, was a passenger in Giles’s car, succumbed to her injuries Monday night at Providence Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills.

In addition to the two fatalities, there were several injured when Pate allegedly drove his 2006 Toyota Tundra south into the northbound lanes of Highway 14, near Escondido Canyon Road, at 3:28 a.m. and collided with a 2006 Chrysler 300, which swerved and struck a rideshare van, according to a CHP report.

Pate had a previous DUI conviction in Ventura County in 2007.

Related article: Burbank Man Charged With Murder In Agua Dulce Crash

Lennard A. Wilds, 47, of Lancaster, another passenger in Giles’s vehicle, was trapped in the car until rescuers could later free him. He sustained critical injuries, and was airlifted to Henry Mayo.  

Juan M. Zamora, 43, of Lancaster, drove the rideshare van, a 2013 Ford Econoline Minor. Zamora was transporting nine passengers to an aerospace work site in Palmdale, likely Plant 42.

Two passengers in the van sustained minor injuries. Efren Arrieta, 27, of Lancaster, and Patrick W. Glesby, 42, of Quartz Hill, was wounded with a cut to left arm.

The other passengers: David G. Moreno, 47, Palmdale; Jose Nario, 22, Palmdale; Javier Cobio, 41, Palmdale; Javier Arrieta, 25, Lancaster; and Alfonso Ramirez, 40, Palmdale were not injured.

Pate is in custody at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles in lieu of $3 milion bail.


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Fatal Agua Dulce Wrong-Way Crash Trial Continued To Next Week

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About Perry Smith

Perry Smith is a print and broadcast journalist who has won several awards for his focused, hyperlocal community coverage in several different regions of the country. In addition to five years of experience covering the Santa Clarita Valley, Smith, a San Fernando Valley native, has worked in newspapers and news websites in Los Angeles, the Northwest, the Central Valley and the South, before coming to KHTS in 2012. To contact Smith, email him at Perry@hometownstation.com.