Photo: All photos courtesy of Santa Barbara Fire Dept.
Written By: Robert L. McCullough
Santa Barbara County, Ca. December 14, 2022 – By all appearances, 22-year-old Goleta resident Kyle Nelson has been unable to control his impulses for well over a year.
Evidence of that began to mount as early as February 2020, according to the elements found in a March 2021 criminal complaint filed by the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office which detailed charges against Nelson involving “oral copulation of an unconscious or sleeping person” and assorted “lewd and lascivious acts” involving a 14-year-old boy.
On the night of October 28, 2022, Nelson was out on bail and awaiting sentencing pursuant to his guilty plea in that case and another in which he had previously pleaded guilty to “assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury and annoying a child under 18.” Perhaps anticipating a serious prison term on those charges, Nelson imbibed enough alcohol that evening to render him unfit to operate a motor vehicle. According to the report filed by the California Highway Patrol, inebriated or not, Nelson took to the highway, “wantonly passed over solid double yellow lines, traveling the wrong way and directly into the path” of a vehicle occupied by 19- year-old Jenna Corrin Causby and 20-year-old Dorothy Ann Guthrie, both Lompoc residents.
The ensuing collision killed both young women and sent Nelson to the hospital with “with major injuries.” Upon his release from the hospital, Nelson was arrested and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was greeted with a criminal indictment charging him with two vehicular manslaughter charges. He remains in custody with his bail set at $500,000.
