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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Kelseyville man who previously served a state prison sentence for a 2010 hit-and-run crash that killed a local restaurateur has been arrested for another hit-and-run crash that injured a woman on Sunday.
James Walter Nightingale, 38, was taken into custody by the California Highway Patrol on Sunday afternoon, the CHP reported.
The CHP said that at 2:35 p.m. Sunday Nightingale was driving a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee in the parking lot of Pomo Pumps on Highway 20 in Nice.
Mia Quintero, 26, of Nice, was stopped in the gas station parking lot in her 2013 Chevrolet Malibu with passengers Angela Hoaglen, 46, of Nice, and a 3-year-old female from Nice, the CHP said.
For reasons still under investigation, Nightingale accelerated in reverse, hitting the front of Quintero’s vehicle. The CHP said Quintero and her passengers were not injured.
Nightingale – who was reportedly acting in a bizarre manner – then attempted to leave the scene, accelerating northbound through the parking lot and going over a concrete curb before he went into the eastbound lane of Highway 20, broadsiding a 2016 Jeep Latitude driven by 25-year-old Bradley Pape of Roseville, according to investigative reports.
Carrie Blake, 21, of Roseville, a passenger in Pape’s vehicle, suffered minor injuries and was treated and released at the scene, the CHP said.
After the crash, Nightingale fled the scene, leaving the bumper to his Jeep behind, according to reports on the crash.
Nightingale was located and detained on Highway 20 just east of Pomp Pumps a short time later and placed under arrest on felony charges of hit-and-run and driving under the influence of drugs, specifically, methamphetamine, according to the CHP and the Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
The CHP said DUI is suspected as a contributing factor to the crash.
On Tuesday afternoon, Nightingale appeared in Lake County Superior Court for arraignment, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.
Hinchcliff said he has preliminarily charged Nightingale with felony DUI causing bodily injury to the driver or passenger of another vehicle, which carries a maximum potential sentence of three years in prison.
So far, Hinchcliff said he’s received CHP reports on the incident that are “very minimal” and will require extensive additional supplemental investigation and reports.
Nightingale previously has been prosecuted for both DUI and hit-and-run, as well as vehicular manslaughter for the death of 57-year-old Zino Mezoui, a Kelseyville restaurateur.
On the afternoon of Sept. 24, 2010 Nightingale – who was on probation and driving on a suspended license – hit and mortally injured Mezoui, who was out for a ride on his motorcycle, at the intersection of Seigler Canyon Road and Highway 29.
Nightingale fled the scene and ditched his Chevy Suburban, leading to a major search for him by local law enforcement. With the help of an attorney, he would agree to turn himself in five days after the crash that killed Mezoui.
In February 2011, Nightingale entered no contest pleas to felony hit-and-run resulting in death or great bodily injury, misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter and driving on a suspended license, and also admitted to violating his probation for two separate cases, one involving driving under the influence, the other driving on a suspended license.
In April 2011, Judge Stephen Hedstrom sentenced Nightingale to four years in prison for the Mezoui case.
During the course of the Mezoui case, it was revealed that Nightingale had five misdemeanors cases against him from 1995 to 2010, including a driving under the influence charge in Sonoma County in 2007 that later was reduced to a lesser “wet reckless” charge and a DUI charge in 2009 for which he was placed on five years probation.
Nightingale remains in the Lake County Jail with bail set at $40,000, according to jail records.
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