Why a judge imposed the longest sentence allowed by law in DUI death of Oakdale woman
A retired police officer got 10 years in state prison for the drunk-driving collision that killed Rebekah Gall of Oakdale last year.
Friday’s sentence was the longest that Theodore William Young, 64, could have received after his Feb. 23 conviction in Tuolumne County Superior Court.
The jury rejected a charge of second-degree murder in the January 2022 crash near Jamestown, to the disappointment of Gall’s survivors. It settled on the lesser charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
Family members said they were grateful that Judge Kevin Seibert gave Young the maximum sentence allowed under the law.
Several of them submitted statements to the court about how Gall’s death had devastated them. Among them was 8-year-old niece Nevaeh Candelaria:
“Sir, you made the wrong decision and got behind the wheel and drank and drove and killed my dear Auntie Rebekah.”
Nevaeh had started to read the statement aloud but then broke into tears. Her mother, Crystal Candelaria, finished it for her.
Victim worked in social services
Gall was a 27-year-old eligibility worker for Tuolumne County Social Services at the time of her death.
Young had a 34-year career in law enforcement, retiring as a sergeant with the Pleasanton Police Department.
Seibert said he favored the maximum sentence in part because Young did not learn from a drunk-driving conviction in 2017. The judge also cited the defendant’s testimony that he drank at least six beers over three hours just before the crash.
Young has been in the county jail on $1 million bail since the day of Gall’s death. He turned himself in at the Jamestown office of the California Highway Patrol.
He wore a striped inmate uniform and shackles on his wrists and ankles during the sentencing. Near the end, he read his own statement to Gall’s family.
“I realize there is absolutely nothing I could say to alleviate the anger and the pain that you must feel,” he said. “... If I could bring back that beautiful woman, Rebekah, if I could trade places with her, I would do it in a second.”
Range of prison terms
State law allows prison terms of four, six or 10 years for this type of manslaughter. Defense attorney Clint Parish argued for the mid-range.
Young had only the one prior conviction and is not the kind of repeat offender that the maximum is aimed at, Parish said.
“Before the court here is a man who spent a 34-year career being a benefit to society,” he said.
Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Novelli noted that Young kept drinking despite court-ordered counseling after his earlier conviction. She said he remains a threat to the public unless he can “address his demons” while in prison.
Young’s sentence includes time already served in jail. He has spent 449 days there and got credit for 67 more for good behavior. He went immediately into the state system, but the prison location was not available.
A second-degree murder conviction would have brought 15 years to life in prison. It requires “malice aforethought” under state law, but not the “premeditation” in first-degree murder.
‘She was loved’
The crash happened about 5:15 p.m. Jan. 18 on Highway 49 south of Chicken Ranch Road, the CHP reported. Gall was southbound in an Acura sedan when it collided head-on with a Toyota Tundra pickup truck that had veered into her lane, the report said.
Gall was taken by helicopter to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, where she died from her injuries three days later. Young was not injured.
In court Friday, loved ones recalled Gall’s kindness toward lost animals and her knack for birthday and Christmas gifts. Amid COVID-19, she dressed as an elf and sang socially distanced carols to an elderly relative.
The prosecution showed a photo of a smiling Gall and dog Chico on several courtroom screens. Others depicted her injuries in the hospital and the memorial service in her honor. A video captured her making chili as part of an online exchange with friends during the pandemic.
Her husband, Michael Gall, said afterward that the family accepted the outcome. And he said Rebekah would be pleased “that everyone showed up and fought for her. She was loved.”
