SACRAMENTO—Police arrested a Sacramento man on Monday, March 30, following a single-vehicle crash that killed the female passenger.
The crash happened at approximately 1:45 am on San Juan Avenue just north of Palm Avenue in Fair Oaks, when Philip Michael Horch, 31, who was driving a 2000 Dodge Stratus, drifted onto the right shoulder of the road and hit a tree.
Horch and his passenger, Heather R. Barnett, were taken to Mercy San Juan Medical Center where Barnett was pronounced dead. California Highway Patrol Officer Chad Hertzell said Barnett, 29, of Elk Grove, had not been wearing a seatbelt.
Horch was arrested at the hospital and booked on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence of any drug causing injury or death, violation of probation. He was also charged with carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle.
Horch had been arrested a year before, on March 10, 2014, for carrying a concealed, loaded and stolen firearm in a vehicle, a switchblade knife, and a narcotic controlled substance. Records show the victim, Heather Barnett, had also been arrested herself in 2014 on weapons charges, along with abuse, threats of violence, and vandalism.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, April 2.
