Camarillo man sentenced to four years in prison for deadly 2016 DUI crash into Thousand Oaks home

A Camarillo man was sentenced Friday to four years in state prison for felony DUI gross vehicular manslaughter after the truck he was driving plowed into a Thousand Oaks home and killed an elderly man in 2016. 

Before Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce Young gave the order, Justin Stalberg, 20, said he was “extremely ashamed” of his role in the Dec. 22, 2016, crash. 

Investigators said Stalberg was driving his family’s Ford F-150 south on Rustic Glen Drive shortly before 2 a.m. when he lost control of the vehicle. The truck plunged down an embankment and through part of Oakbrook Neighborhood Park, then crashed into a family room of a home on Briarwood Place where 74-year-old Igor Lirtsman, of New York, was sleeping. 

Lirtsman had been visiting his family for the holidays, investigators said. He and his family were supposed to go to Disneyland that day, a visit he had not yet made in his life. 

Prosecutors said a blood sample taken more than five hours after the crash showed Stalberg had a 0.12 percent blood alcohol level and had chemical properties that suggested he used marijuana close to the time of the incident. 

Read more:New York man dies when truck crashes into Thousand Oaks house

The defendant also admitted to a special allegation of a serious felony and a felony charge of attempting to flee the scene of an accident involving death. He initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but later changed his plea to guilty in September.

A preliminary hearing was held in the case in May 2017 in which Lirtsman’s son-in-law Amr Abdel Dayem testified that Stalberg allegedly continued to rev the truck’s engine and move the truck another 5 to 6 feet while the victim’s lifeless body was in front of it.

Dayem submitted a written victim impact statement to the court Friday. His wife, Yana Lirtsman, and his daughter, Cai Dayem, 16, read their statements before the court. Statements from two of the victim’s other children were also read aloud. 

Outside the courtroom Friday after the hearing, Yana Lirtsman said she knew whatever the sentence was, it would not be “satisfactory,” mostly because it will never bring back her father. She called it “a feigned sense of justice.” 

Read more:Man pleads guilty to vehicular manslaughter in December incident

In her statement Friday, Yana Lirtsman said she had heard about Stalberg’s effort to continue his education as the proceedings went forward. She said as a teacher, she understood the value of learning but could not understand how Stalberg made the fatal decision in the first place or why it was more important than the case. 

“Mr. Stalberg, you’re smart. You should have known better,” she said. 

The crash happened in her home. 

“The void and silence it created are unbearable,” she said. 

Her father was on a visit that the family had been looking forward to after recently moving from New York. She had not seen her father in more than a year. 

Yana Lirtsman called her father, who worked as a pilot, her mentor and hero.   

She recalled his life, saying he had always been a fighter. Igor Lirtsman grew up Jewish in German-occupied Russia and later spoke out about communism in Soviet Russia. With the help of then-Vice President George H. W. Bush in the 1970s, the victim and his children were allowed to leave Russia for the U.S. as political refugees. 

“As long as I can remember, my father he had a heightened sense of fairness and justice,” she said. 

After handing down the sentence, Young said he hopes the victim’s family can hold onto those same ideas. 

But for the victim’s granddaughter, Cai Dayem, forgiveness was not on the table. 

At the hearing, the Agoura High School student said the horrific sight of her grandfather’s death haunts her every day and she has lingering effects from the trauma. 

“Every time I think about him, all I see is him under that truck,” she said. 

Yana Lirtsman said she, her husband and two daughters all suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from the crash that caused the family to leave the first home she and her husband were able to buy. 

Cai Dayem said the incident has also made her anxious to be inside a car. She gets nervous when a vehicle goes above a certain speed or if other cars get too close. It’s something that has also affected her getting a driver’s license. 

“The idea of me being behind the wheel is beyond terrifying,” she said. 

When Stalberg changed his plea, the court indicated he would be sentenced to four years, which was the least amount of time he was facing. 

Before Young handed down the sentence, Deputy District Attorney Taylor Waters argued the circumstances of the crash require more than four years in prison. 

“That is not fair, and not just in this case,” Waters said. 

Waters said Stalberg made a choice to drive that night even after a few of his friends tried to prevent him from doing that, suggesting he use the ride-sharing service Uber. 

Stalberg’s defense attorney Robert Sanger acknowledged the gravity of the case and argued for the low sentence. He said there are points in this case he could still argue but said that since it never went to trial, it would be “inappropriate” to do so at sentencing.

During victim impact statements, Lirtsman’s family made allegations that it took Stalberg a long time to take responsibility for the crash. Sanger said, however, that Stalberg has been remorseful from the beginning and the justice system itself does take time. 

Ultimately, Young said he weighed the details of the case, Stalberg’s age and his lack of criminal history when ordering the sentence. He said it was clear that both the victim and the defendant were affected by the crash. Young also noted that any prison sentence would be “no insignificant factor” in the college student’s life. 

At the time of the crash, Stalberg was a student in the management information systems program at the University of Arizona in Tucson and was a spring 2016 Zipperman Scholar, according to the school’s website.

Through a family pastor who did not give his name, Stalberg’s family declined to comment on the sentencing but said it’s a difficult time for all involved.