A repeat offender with an extensive criminal history was free to steal a Tesla and plow it through a crowded San Diego boardwalk, leaving a 25-year-old woman hospitalized with fractured ribs and vertebrae — because the system designed to protect the public never locked him away the first dozen times.
Juan Antonio Gonzaba, 39, pleaded not guilty Wednesday after allegedly stealing a Tesla in La Jolla and leading police on a wild chase that ended on the Pacific Beach Boardwalk Monday afternoon. The New York Post reported that Gonzaba has what NBC 7 described as an "extensive criminal history" involving assault, battery, burglary, and grand theft. Yet there he was — free as a bird, behind the wheel of someone else's car, barreling toward families on a boardwalk.
According to the Post, Gonzaba was spotted around 12:30 p.m. and sped away when officers tried to pull him over. He slammed into a roadside electrical transformer before continuing toward the boardwalk, sending terrified pedestrians diving for cover. The woman he struck suffered two fractured right ribs, two fractured vertebrae, and an abdominal laceration. She was still hospitalized as of Wednesday.
"A lot of people dove out of the way very quickly and it really could have been so much worse," San Diego Fire Department public information officer Candace Hadley told NBC San Diego. "This is a very busy boardwalk, having someone drive through this area is incredibly frightening."
Gonzaba eventually abandoned the Tesla and ran — only to be chased down by bystanders, including one witness who captured the pursuit on Meta smart glasses. Alex Srour was wearing the glasses and sprinted after Gonzaba before police took him into custody.
Gonzaba faces up to 24 years and eight months in state prison if convicted on all charges. That's a big "if" in a state where progressive prosecutors have made an art form of reducing charges and cutting deals. His court appearance was itself a spectacle: Gonzaba acted erratically, banged his head against a glass wall, and had to be repeatedly ordered by the judge to remain quiet, the Post reported. He is suspected of being under the influence at the time, with blood test results still pending.
Here is the question that matters: How does a man with a rap sheet full of assault, battery, burglary, and grand theft walk the streets long enough to steal a car and nearly kill a woman on a boardwalk? Every one of those prior offenses was a chance to take a dangerous person off the streets. Every one was squandered. A 25-year-old woman is lying in a hospital bed because the system chose the criminal over the public.
