Drug counselor killed by Santa Rosa DUI driver
North Bay rehab counselor struck and killed by suspected dui driver
The family of Jessica Fonseca of Rohnert Park is mourning their loss and calling for traffic safety improvements. The 34-year-old substance abuse rehab counselor was struck and killed by a man suspected of driving under the influence of a controlled substance while on Stony Point Road in Santa Rosa.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - A family is mourning a 34-year-old woman who was killed by an alleged DUI driver in Santa Rosa.
The family of the victim identified her as Jessica Fonseca of Rohnert Park.
Fonseca died Friday night after her 2020 Nissan Altima was struck by a Fiat 500 at the intersection of Stony Point Road and Millbrae Avenue.
The driver of the Fiat failed to stop at a stop sign and collided with Fonseca's car, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
Fonseca died at the scene.
Authorities said the driver of the Fiat 500 was under the influence of a controlled substance.
The driver was booked into the Sonoma County Jail on charges of felony DUI, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and being under the influence of a controlled substance.
The driver was identified by the California Highway Patrol as 54-year-old Charles Philip Rubin of Sebastopol.
Loved ones said Fonseca was an addiction counselor who had been sober for over eight years, according to a GoFundMe campaign for the victim.
"Jessica has always attempted to do the right thing and help others along the way. Our lives and her friends will forever be altered by this senseless act," the family wrote.
Her sister, Michaela Chatham, said that before the tragedy struck, she and Fonseca had attended a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and ate at a taco truck before parting ways. That was the last time she would ever see her sister alive.
The crash wasn't far from where Fonesca lived.
At a roadside memorial on Tuesday night, Fonesca's two siblings mourned her loss.
"It's been absolutely devastating. I don't know how to put that into words," Chatham said.
"Why the hell are you getting into a car as you're drunk? Get an Uber," said Michael Chatham Jr.
Family members said Jessica loved life and worked at helping to save the lives of others.
"To do what she did for a living and then to be killed by a person that she goes to work to help every day is tragic," said Michael Chatham Senior.
Chatham said she saw the suspected DUI driver in court for the first time on Tuesday morning.
She said he stole something precious from her. She said she saw or spoke to her sister Jessica every day.
34-year-old Jessica Fonseca of Rohnert Park, the victim of a DUI in Santa Rosa.